Talking in Riddles
by venetian shadow
Summary: When the new girl moves in to the caretakers cottage on the old Pope estate and discovers an old book, what will happen to her and to the Sons of Ipswich? Will their power be disrupted? Set before Chace. Tyler and O/C.
1. Chapter 1Moving

**Chapter One**.

Verity Hanes looked around the cold, old house that used to be a gamekeepers cottage on the large estate that belonged to one of the oldest families in the Ipswich area. The Pope estate.

The Pope family had long been dead and buried, but Ipswich National Park had kept it as it was seeing as the whole family had been wiped out, there was no one to claim it, so the County trust office had a small amount of funding each year for a cleaner and a handy man to keep it running and occasionally history and literature students would tour the house.

The previous caretaker had been an old local man who had recently passed away of old age. When Dianne Hanes had applied for the job, she didn't think she would get it. She had been a housewife to a wealthy and successful business man in New York, but when he had a break down following the Wall Street crisis, she had decided to take control and move her husband away from the city before it killed him.

Now Frank Hanes stays at home as a house husband, cooking and cleaning and now writing his novel (an honest yet amusing account of the goings on in the Wall Street offices, including scandalous affairs, computer crisis' and the stealing of office stationary) and attempting to be "hip" which results in his daughter blushing and looking like a tomato in her school uniform.

Frank and Dianne were worried about Verity's schooling and the cost of a private education, but Dianne's father came to the rescue. He had wanted Dianne to go to a private school but instead she had eloped with Frank, so her private education fund was going to Verity, plus Verity had the brains to get a full scholarship should she ever have the need to.

So with the offer of a job out of the city and a small cottage that was rent free to go with it, the Hanes family moved from New York, renting their trendy apartment to some up and coming designer and came to Ipswich. A move that Verity was still sulking over.

And now we can join her back in her new bedroom.

It was cold, smaller than what she was used to, and there was no fact the whole house was just plain weird.

For a start it was upside down. To get to the front door, you had to walk up a set of stone stairs. Then the door would lead you in to the kitchen, which was also a dining room. Then you could walk through to the living room, and at the other end of that room was a flight of stairs, which lead out down stairs to the bedrooms. Crazy right?

Verity's room was under the stairs, her mother had come up a week before her and her father and decorated it for her.

On the wall by the door was a floor to ceiling book shelf, filled with all her school and recreational books. Then next to that was a little door, and in front of it, her favourite chair. It was a folding canvas garden chair, but with a duvet draped over it, it was the most comfortable chair in the world.

By the side of the chair was a small nightstand, then her double bed with a small mid length bay window, another night stand and her DVD cabinet. The wall across the other side of the room opposite her bed was a storage heater, her desk, another window and plastic storage boxes with all her photos and junk in. Then the wall joining that held her TV unit and the doors to the closet.

The closet was small, not a walk in. In the middle was a chest of drawers and plastic storage boxes on it holding her jeans and sweaters, with her nice clothes hanging wither side of the unit. On the door hung her new school uniform. And then that bought her back to the door.

The wall where her desk stood was deep red, and the other walls lavender, the wall above her bed was cream, ready for wall paper to go on it when her parents had the time to spare.

Verity sighed, so this was home now?

Next to her room was her parent's room, similar set up with the closet situation, but way bigger. Then there was the bathroom. One bath with a shower head above it, a basin and a toilet.

Verity's old place had a huge kitchen, separate dining room with one of those long old fashioned tables you see in the movies, its own library, she had an en-suite and so did her parents. They both had walk in showers and a two person Jacuzzi type bath. The entire house could be fit in to the kitchen and lounge of her old place. It was so unfair.

They no longer had a driver to take them places, or a list if invites to the most exclusive parties, no designer shopping. It would all have to be done via the internet.

Verity prayed for the coming week to be over so she could go back to New York to see her friends.

However, there was an upside which Verity had to constantly remind herself of.

Her grandfather was a very rich old man, and he had promised her an allowance AND a car of her choice. As soon as she managed to somehow figure out how to drive a car.

Living in New York she didn't have the need to drive. When she went to Connecticut to stay with her beloved grandfather, she drove around, but not often.

She had her eye on a nice new BMW X5, black of course, leather interior with lots of gadgets and a killer sound system. Verity liked to be amused in a car. Have lots of buttons to press to stop boredom.

Why her mother couldn't have restarted her interior designer business, Verity had no idea. She had set up when Verity was a toddler, but as soon as she hit high school, she sold some of the shares, kept a majority, but took a back seat, just doing the admin. Leaving the running of the business to her best friend, Joelle, who happened to be Verity's Godmother.

Her mother had a 4x4 and her father now had a Rolls Royce, and the BMW would be on its way, as soon as her grandfather was satisfied she possessed the ability to drive for more than miles without panicking, crashing or loosing concentration.

Verity sighed as she unpacked her hand luggage from the flight, the only luggage she had left to bring.

Her Louis Vuitton oversized bag contained her iPod, camera, Blackberry, personal organiser and purse. Her mother had insisted that she bring the lap top so she could set up the internet before Verity began at her new school.

Verity wondered over to her desk, switched on her Apple Notebook and plugged in her iPod to charge, she thought about checking her e-mail and Facebook, but since she got alerts from her cell, she saw no point, but quickly logged on to change her status so all her friends would know she had arrived safely. Verity sat on the pine chair and flicked through I-tunes. There was nothing that caught her eye, so she just clicked off and went back over to her bed.

She placed her Blackberry and charger on the night stand next to her pink glitter lamp. The one thing she had demanded was that she have a pink glitter lamp. Her mother had also hung up from the curtain pole above her bed a string of flower lights and there was an old beam running across the ceiling above where the closet and TV unit lived, there were fairy lights hung up along that too, Verity smiled, her mom had really gone to town to make her feel at home here.

Pity that she didn't.

Verity looked at the alarm clock by her bed, it read 6pm. She set her alarm for 7am to giver he self-time to eat and make sure that she had everything she could possibly need for school the next morning.

"Hey Honey. How are you feeling?" Her mother walked in through the door wearing dungarees (?) and a pink sweater underneath, and hugged her daughter.

"Fine mom, tired." Verity replied, she wanted to be in New York, not here, but her mother was so enthusiastic about the move, she had no choice but to lie.

"I got your time table here baby." Dianne pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket and unfolded it. "I meant to put it up on your notice board but I forgot. Why don't you tell me where you want your pictures to go and I'll put them up?"

"Sure. I'll put up post it's." Verity loved post it notes, without them, her life would be a mess. She took the time table and put it on the desk and grabbed her pink post it's.

"Can I get you anything to eat baby?" Dianne asked, watching as her daughter wrote down the description of her pictures and posters on the little pink sticky papers and place them on the walls.

"I ate on the plane with dad." She said, awkwardly.

"Ok then sweetie, but if you get hungry let me know ok?"

"Sure. I was just going to shower and get my stuff ready for school tomorrow."

"Well ok then, try to remember to switch on the water boiler when you're done in the shower."

"I will mom." Verity went back to sticking up post it's while her mother nodded and left the room to join her husband upstairs for coffee and food, she hoped her daughter would come round to the fact they were living her whether she liked it or not.

Verity looked at her time table. Her classes where pretty much the same here as they were back home. Tomorrow she had English Literature, Human Biology, Politics, History and then a free period, which she would use to come home and sulk that she had no friends here and hated it.

She walked over to her closet, pulled out her school bag, she wasn't going to use her usual oversized Prada purple leather bag, instead she settled for an understated black Gucci shoulder bag. She put in her text books, note book and pencil case and of course her favourite book of all time, Northanger Abbey written by the great Jane Austen, just in case she got laughed at, Verity also popped in Cujo, by Stephen King, no doubt she would come up against some really rabid bitches in this town, she thought to herself.

Verity put her hold all from the plan on the storage boxes by her desk and her school bag by the closet door and headed to the bathroom for a shower.

At least I stocked up on decent shampoo from Saks before we hit this dump, she thought to herself. So glad she wasn't one for high lights because she doubted there was a decent salon in this town.

This bathroom had no built in sound system, so for the first time in years, she showered in total silence, and the only sound was the water dripping over her body and her sobs.


	2. Chapter 2New Friends & Frienemies

**Chapter Two.**

Reid, Caleb, Tyler and Pogue congregated in the corridor by their first class of the day, English Literature. They were studying Bram Stroker's Dracula. On of Reid's favourites, not because he had read the book, ever, but because all the Dracula movies were awesome and he wished he had the power to seduce like Dracula did.

"Tyler, did you get the Hummer fixed?" Reid asked, he was totally bummed that the awesome vehicle had been out of action while it awaited parts in the local garage.

"Yeah, picking it up after school. Why?" Tyler didn't have to ask why, he knew Reid loved his car more than he did. This was a pain when he wanted to drive and his friend kicked him out the driver's seat.

"Just wondering. SO when are we next cruising baby boy?" He asked, Reid had a theory, when girls saw the Hummer, they instantly thought about how spacious the back seats would be. Both Reid and Tyler had yet to prove this theory.

"Erm, well whenever I guess. Aren't we hanging at Nicky's tonight?"

Caleb and Pogue stopped the conversation they were having as soon as Tyler mentioned Nicky's. None of them legally old enough to drink, but it was still THE place to go for pool, music and food. And of course girls.

"You know maybe we should stay in tonight, it is only Monday after all." Caleb stated. Being the oldest meant he had to be responsible. If a school report was bad, it was always Caleb who was told by his own mother, and the mothers of his friends, to keep a lid on trouble and late nights and encourage homework.

"Come on old man, you only live once!" Pogue grinned at his friend. Tyler and Reid joined in the teasing.

"Yeah oldie, don't get your panties in a twist!" Reid ruffled Caleb's hair and Tyler just laughed.

All of a sudden, Pogue tapped his hand on Caleb's in order to get his attention.

"What?" A Laughing Caleb turned to Pogue and followed his stare to half way up the corridor.

Pogue had his jaw practically on the floor, Caleb's eyes perked up and Tyler and Reid turned to see what had bedazzled their friends so much.

She was walking towards them, shoulder bag swinging away at her side, her eyes focusing on the paper in her hands.

She had long black hair that was flowing in loose curls down to just below her chest, it shone as the lights reflected of its mirror like surface. Her skin was pale with just a hint of tan. She wore her uniform better than any other girl in the school. She was wearing Mary-Jane shoes with a thick squared high heel, making her stand even taller, showing off her slender toned frame.

The four boys watched mesmerised for a moment, and as they were regaining their dignity buy picking their mouths up from off the floor, Aaron Abbott just so happened to walk in to her, sending bag flying from off her shoulder and on to the floor.

"Hey!" He said in a pretend surprised voice, as if he hadn't walked in to her on purpose.

"Sorry." She said, her voice was soft yet confident.

"First day?" He asked picking up her bag from the floor.

"That obvious huh?" She smiled and took her bag from the blue eyed, curly haired boy in front of her.

"Kinda." He said. "I'm Aaron." He held out his hand to her.

"Verity." She said, and took his hand in hers for a formal hand shake..

"Nice to meet you Verity. So what's your first class?"

"English Lit."

"Same, its right over here. Want me to show you?"

"That would be great, I just spent like, twenty minutes totally lost!" She smiled and rolled her eyes. He was cute. He had a very masculine and strong jaw line, he had a jock jacket on to show he was a member of some sort of sports team. He probably has a hot body, and a totally hot girlfriend to boot, Verity thought.

"Easily done, it's a big place! So where have you transferred from?" They walked to the door and he opened it for her and put his hand on her upper back signalling for her to go through first.

The four boys just looked on in total horror and dismay. Aaron just looked at them and winked before following the new girl in through the door and closing it behind them.

"What just happened?" Tyler asked when he had finally recovered.

"I think the world's hottest girl just got picked up by the world's biggest prick right in front of us." Caleb answered.

"Damned Aaron, now he's going to be a real arrogant son of a bitch for the rest of the day." Reid answered.

"No more than usual, once we win over the girl, that is." Pogue answered with a sly grin on his face.

"And how do you plan on doing that when you have a girlfriend in tow?" Caleb asked his friend. Sure he wasn't too thrilled about Kate, she seemed sweet and nice at first but then she started letting her eyes wonder, then she got clingy because she was looking so automatically assumed Pogue was. Caleb wished he would just dump her, she would constantly wind him up and make him jealous by flirting with other guys and he got to a point where he wasn't taking it any more so went and flirted with loads of girls. Annoying.

"Ah she'll find some new schmuck to twirl her hair at." Pogue was getting that dreamy look in his eyes, the one he got when he first started to go out with Kate. Oh boy, thought Caleb, here we go again.

"How do you know she doesn't have a boyfriend already?" Tyler spoke up.

"She won't when I've worked my charms." Reid said smiling.

They heard the familiar squeaking of 's old worn out shoes on the floor and head in to the class, if they were there before him, he couldn't give them detention for being late. He would just have to find another excuse.

When the guys sat in their usual spots, Pogue and Caleb in the higher seats, across the room and opposite from Aaron and his little following, and two rows above and six seats across from Reid and Tyler, they all had a great view of Aaron sat looking smitten between the new girl and Keira. He really did look like the cat that had the cream.

Only ten minutes in to the lesson, the new girl looked at Aaron who was slumped over the bench in front of him day dreaming with Keira twiddling his hair. She looked away and rolled her eyes for the second time that day, shook her head, and began to take notes.

That's a good start, thought Tyler to himself, maybe she won't be in to Aaron after all.

Tyler began to plan his move, Pogue had Kate so he should really back off, Reid was not at all interested in anything apart from self-gratification, and she looked way too good to be used, Caleb however would be more difficult to defeat. He hadn't had a serious girlfriend, and neither had Tyler, so he would feel really bad about battling it out for the affections of a girl with Caleb.

But she could be a total hussy and not in to any of us at all, which would make things a lot easier, Tyler added on to his train of thought. He spent the class pondering over this new situation.

Girls come and go, but friendships are eternal, and Reid did always say bro's before hoes.


	3. Chapter 3 Advanced Science

**Chapter Three.**

The rest of the class passed by in a boring blur. Verity had read Dracula a thousand times. The library at her old place held hundreds of original print books, and then obviously the re-prints so they could be read and handled without the need for gloves.

The teacher had given her his class notes and a copy of the book so she could catch up. Thing is, she knew the book inside out and back to front, plus she had covered it last year at her old school. Silly, silly man, Verity though, causing her to smile slightly.

The affection Keira was oozing out during class was sickening, and screamed DON'T TOUCH MY MAN BITCH! At Verity. Pffft, she thought, if he's interested then he'll come running soon enough, they usually do!

She quickly parted from Aaron and Keira, the girl looked pleased to be rid of her, but Aaron looked kind of hung up when she said she had to go to the main office en-route to her next class to hand in her documents for her I.D and she protested that she knew the way when Aaron wanted to with her.

Keira and Aaron walked off, he was a little annoyed she was so hostile. They weren't really going out, just really good buddies. She had a major crush on Caleb, he turned her down so she went for Aaron.

Truth is, the boys and Aaron used to get along ok, being on the swim team meant they kind of had to. They were civilised and said hi, sometimes ate at Nicky's together when swim meets ran on, but Keira had stirred things up, Aaron took a side, hers, and things were just never the same. Aaron knew how gutted Keira was when she was turned down by Caleb, time and time again last year, so he became closer to her to cheer her up. She didn't have many female friends, she wasn't really a friendly girl, and she was possessive and jealous and wanted to be queen bee. But none of the other girls took any notice of her. Aaron concluded that she didn't have a happy home life, which is why she hung out at his dorm rather than spend time at her Grandmother's house.

Aaron made his way to his next class, math. His worst class. He hoped that Verity would stay on after school to watch him swim, it would be nice to have someone other than Keira to watch.

Meanwhile, Verity had made her way to her Human Biology class and had sat down at one of the tables, she was the first one in, embarrassing.

She didn't have to wait long before other students came in. Verity was doodling in her notepad when a voice interrupted her.

"Can I sit here?" The voice asked her.

She looked up and was taken aback by the boy in front of her. He had the most startling blue eyes she had ever seen, and dark hair, loose bangs sweeping across the right side of his face.

She nodded.

"Sure. Am I sitting in someone's place?" She asked, not really caring if she was.

"My friend Caleb sits here, but he's running late, so his loss." The boy sat down next to her.

"I'm Tyler." He said, noticing her emerald green eyes glittering under the lights.

"Verity."

"I saw you in English Lit, you looked kinda bored." He smiled as he got his books out.

"Yeah, I did Dracula last year."

"Homesick yet?"

"I only flew in yesterday, so I guess it's not really kicked in fully yet."

"Where did you fly in from?" He wanted to know more, and she wanted to make a friend, it would suck to be sat on her own for lunch.

"New York."

Tyler nodded, not sure what to say.

"There's a quick break after this class, but what lesson do you have after?" He asked.

"Umm, Politics, lunch then History and a free period."

"What are you going to do for your free period? Catch up on work?"

"Figured I'd go home. What do you do?"

"Swim. I'm on the swim team. Do you swim?"

"No. I'm not good in water, I kind of sink." This made Tyler laugh, so she smiled.

"Did you do any sports in New York?"

"kind of."

"What did you do?"

She blushed, she didn't want to tell him, just in case he laughed.

"I was on the cheer team."

"On the cheer team or head cheer? I bet you were head cheer right?"

"Guilty." She said, nodding. He smiled.

"We have a cheer team here, the head of it's a real pain in the ass though. You met her earlier."

"Keira? Head cheerleader? No way! She looks to guy obsessed to focus on anything else!"

"One of the main reasons she joined in the first place probably."

"So what does the cheer squad support? The swim team?"

"No way, I mean, could you imagine cheerleaders prancing around doing flips by the side of the pool?" This made Verity laugh. "They support the basketball and football teams. Kinda split their time between the two. Swimming is mainly the school sport here, so the teams aren't that big."

"Hey Tyler, whose this?" A tall dark boy stood in front of her at the table.

"I'm sorry, is this seat?" Verity asked.

"Yea it is, but its fine, I'll grab a stool and sit at the corner." He smiled at her and put his bag on the high table and went to grab himself a stool. He was back before Tyler had a chance to say anything.

"I'm Caleb." The boy said. He was cute, tall, dark AND handsome. Wow, Verity thought to herself, all the boys here are cute! Grace will be so jealous when I tell her!

"I'm Verity." She replied.

The teacher entered the room and began to walk up the class, handing out test papers. She was tall, skinny and had her hair in a tight bun and gold rimmed glasses, she wore a tweed pencil skirt and black shirt, with a grey silk scarf around her neck. Verity could tell right away that she was old school and took held no prisoners.

"Test time!" Her strict voice announced. "To see how much, or how little, you all remember from before the summer."

She stopped at the table where Tyler, Verity and Caleb were sat.

"It's two per work bench Mr Danvers, perhaps you could explain why there are three of you at this one?" She spat, glaring at the three of them.

"Well Miss Marks, " Caleb began to say, politely. "We have a new pupil and there aren't enough work tables."

Miss Marks paused, then nodded.

"I see. You're the New York transfer student?" She glared at Verity.

"Yes Miss." Verity answered, quietly.

"Well, I don't expect a high mark from you, but I expect you to take the test any way." Miss Marks gave her a test paper, and Verity briefly looked at it. Easy as pie, she thought to herself.

"I'll try." Verity answered as the teacher walked away.

"You want help with the answers?" Tyler asked.

"Nah, I think I got this one. Thanks." She answered, and Caleb winked at her before starting his own test. Tyler hoped she would be ok with the test.

Verity whizzed through the questions. Last year she had been in the advanced class for Human Biology, and this test was a walk in the park.

An hour later, the trio walked out of class and Tyler started the conversation.

"Pretty tight test huh?" I hope you did ok Verity." They walked towards the exit to take them outside to the benches by the old oak tree and flower beds.

"Are you kidding? It was the easiest ever!" She smiled and Caleb laughed, he had watched her whizz through her paper without pausing once, while he had to think hard on some of the answers.

"Really, I found it hard in places." Caleb spoke up, texting from his phone.

"I was on the advanced programme at my last school, I did all that like, two years ago!" She replied. "Last year we had one of the professors from Harvard come and teach us for a semester. Then the after that we had went to the college for a work shop."

"Wow, a Harvard professor and a work shop? What were you guys learning down in New York?" Tyler asked, slightly intimidated at her reply.

"Well the professor was teaching us pre-med anatomy and the work shop we did was all about physiology during exercise and injury. Kind of a sports science crash course." She replied. "Where are going?" She asked.

"We take morning break by the back of the pool hall. I've told Pogue to grab you a drink and we'll meet them there." Caleb explained.

"Ok." Was all she could say, these boys were hot and they were really nice to her. She had been in one the most exclusive friendship groups in her school, but here she was slightly out of her depth. She had been at her old school from the beginning and had the same friends all the way from first grade.

They had reached a small benched area, the sun shone weakly through a few white clouds. The area was grassy and neat. There were no flower beds here, but a hedge outlining the edge of the school grounds.

"Hey!" Caleb went over to the two other boys lounging on the pic nick benches and began to talk about the lessons they had spent apart.

Tyler stayed next to Verity's side. A boy with scruffy hair that reached just past his chin cam over with two bottles of Gatorade in his hands. He gave one to Tyler and handed Verity one.

"You're Verity right?" He asked her.

"Yeah." She nodded. "Thanks." She said, taking the bottle of drink from him. He was hot too!

"I'm Pogue." He said, with a small smile.

"Hey! Stop hogging the new skirt bro!" The blonde boy said, coming over and put his hand out to Verity.

"I'm Reid." He said. Pogue rolled his eyes at Caleb who shrugged and took a drink from his bottle.

"Verity." She shook his hand. This guy was way too full of himself for her liking. And too blonde.

"You're from New York right?" He asked.

"Yeah." She took her hand back from him.

"Looks like Verity might be spending some quality time with Keira!" Tyler spoke up, the three other boys started to laugh and joke.

"Too bad!" Caleb smiled.

"Keira? You guys know each other or something?" Reid asked, wanting to know more about this girl.

"She's a cheerleader." Tyler went and put an arm around her. "I'm sorry for the torture she will put you through!" She smiled at him when he said this.

"I think I can handle her, but thanks any way Tyler!"

"Cheerleader? How about you try the swim club?" Pogue asked.

Tyler removed his arm and Verity went and added her bag to the large pile that had been dumped on the floor by the others and sat on the table of the bench and put her feet on the seat.

"That would be a no go, but thanks for the offer." She smiled at him. She was a pretty strong swimmer, but not keen on the water that much, ever since she had seen Jaws when she was thirteen, she had been put off water, even in the pool.

"That's too bad, we could do with an extra X chromosome on the team." He joked, he straddled the bench but her feet.

Damn that girls got some fine legs! He thought to himself.


	4. Chapter 4 A Long Walk In To The Dark

**Chapter Four.**

Verity had spent a weird day at school. Firstly with Aaron and Keira, and then Tyler and Caleb in her Human Biology class who automatically took her to morning break with them to hang with their buddies then insisting walking her to her class after morning recess, and then also dragging her back to their usual spot around the back of the pool house for lunch.

All the girls they walked passed were gobsmacked, the new girl was being walked from class to class by the four hottest guys in the school!

It was around 4pm when she got home, Caleb had insisted on driving her seeing as she didn't have a car, he knew where the place was, so she didn't have to navigate him. Her mom had called last minute and said was there any chance a bus or a cab could bring her home because her and her father where busy at the Pope house.

The drive was full of Caleb asking her how the rest of her classes went seeing as she didn't share them with him, Tyler, Reid or Pogue.

"Is Reid always that...hyper?" She asked him. This caused Caleb to laugh.

"Yeah he is! Especially around girls."

Verity felt so at home in his Mustang, she was used to posh cars and being driven around, so she didn't feel at all uncomfortable.

"I think I'm sharing most of my classes with you tomorrow." He said to her.

"Really? Wow, a whole day with Caleb Danvers, I'm so lucky!" They both laughed.

Conversation had been easy between her and Caleb. He was full of funny stories about his friends and a good listener too. He pulled up to her house and she undid her seatbelt and got ready to get out the car.

"Thanks for driving me Caleb. I really didn't fancy the walk!" She said.

"Any time. I'll have to help you figure out the difficult task of driving without crashing." He joked. Verity laughed at that.

"Sure, that would be cool. Really. I would invite you up, but the kitchen is full of boxes still."

"You only got here yesterday, boxes will be hanging around for months yet so get used it!" He smiled.

"Well, you want to come up?" She quizzed him.

"I have to cook tonight, it's my turn at home, so I better go. Tomorrow though?"

"You plan on driving me home tomorrow?"

"Yeah, why not? You don't have a car yet and it's along the way to my place."

"You know while it's not raining, you could drop me off at the bottom of the road and I'll walk up."

"You're kidding right? It's a three mile walk from the main road."

"I like walking. Give me an iPod and I'll walk for miles."

"Fine, fine. I'll drop you at the bottom of the road. Just make sure you have band aids for your blisters!" He joked. She got out the car.

"Bye Caleb, see you tomorrow."

"Bye Verity." She shut the door and walked up the stairs, he watched while she unlocked the door to make sure she got in safe and waved before driving off.

He didn't want her there alone, the grounds of the Pope house didn't give off a good vibe to him.

It was getting pretty dark but Verity decided to put on the wellington boots her mother had bought her (zebra print, how classic! Verity had thought) and her new winter jacket and some old jeans and head out for a walk.

She took her Blackberry with her just in case she got lost, and her iPod and front door key, placed them safely in her pockets and began to walk down the winding lane which had hedges either side and fields beyond those.

Music was playing loudly in her ears, she had recently downloaded Deep Blue Something's Breakfast and Tiffany's and she was hooked on it!

Walking absent mindedly for half a mile, Verity came across an old road to her left. It had gnarled old hedges and yet more fields either side. She went up it, carefully dodging the fallen old branches and loose rocks as she went.

After another half mile, Verity noticed it had started to get really, really dark. And eerie.

To her right was a gate which led on to fields. It wouldn't open so she climbed over it and began to walk up to the top of the field.

When the field came to an end she decided not to go on to the next one, but to walk to the other side of the field to where there was a large mass of trees. It didn't take her long. The music in her ears kept her going.

Verity stopped to look at her cell, she had been walking for 45minutes and she had covered a lot of ground. She carried on walking, not noticing the darkness creeping up around her and the half-moon that was slowly coming out to play for the night.

Verity walked past the trees and came to a steep drop, she estimated it was roughly fifteen feet to the bottom, where there was a pond. She stumbled down the steep bank and to the pond, where a little trickle of water led to another steep drop and to a river. Verity walked dangerously along the top of the grassy cliff until she came to some ruins.

It was really quit dark now, and Verity looked up to the sky and saw how dark it was.

She didn't pause to look at the ruins for very long, and in the dark, they were not easy to make out. They seemed to be the ruins of an old house though, dilapidated and abandoned a long time ago. Verity walked passed them and down the hill of the field she had walked in to. The dark was coming faster now, and the moon, although as bright as it was, would not provide enough light to guide her home.

Verity continued to walk and looked at the time on her phone. It had been an hour now, she did not know where she was, and panic had set in.

She ran as fast as her feet could carry her in wellington boots and she came to a fence, razor wire kept her from climbing over it, but luckily for her, the fence had several trees along its borders, she found one which seemed easy enough to mount, and clambered over it to the other side of the offending wire fence, she was now in another field.

Great, she thought, I'm going to be like the kid in the book The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, stuck in the middle of nowhere with a black bear thingy after her!

Spurred on by her music, the lost girl continued forwards to the other side of the large, open field.

She walked and walked and eventually came to another fence.

"Yey! More razor wire!" She said sarcastically to one in particular. She found another gnarly tree to climb up over and landed on a road on the other side with a bump.

Verity looked around, it was so dark now, and she was getting a little nervous. However, she recognised the road as the way to her house, so she walked up it towards the hill going up. She was so tired, exhausted even. She w would be really glad to get in to the shower and to bed when she got in!

It took her about ten more minutes to get to her front door, the steps up to her front door were much harder to climb up than they were a mere few hours earlier when he had come home from school.

Verity stumbled through the door, took off her boots and coat and put them in the corner by the dining table, and went through to her living room and collapsed on her father's reclining arm chair.

Verity took the iPod out of her jeans pocket and switched it off. She smiled to herself at the memory of climbing trees to get over the fences. It was a good job she had been a cheerleader in her old school, otherwise there would be every possibility she would still be in the field, panicking.

Verity was sweating a lot now, so she dragged herself out of the chair and down stairs to shower.

She switched the water on and peeled off her damp clothes, stepping under the hot water she was glad that she had gone for that walk, she would be chained to her desk doing homework, fighting the urge to call her friends to come and rescue her.

verity washed her hair and quickly shaved her legs and under arms, using her favourite coconut body wash, she was reminded of the summer she spent in the Caribbean last year, on a friend's boat, sun, ,sea and friends. It was perfect! Her and her girls; Charlene, Emily, Kristen and Grace had such fun that summer. When they did go in to town they were flirted by boys and men, and a few of their guy friends came to join them on the boat for a long weekend. All in all they had spent most of that summer away from parents. The only adults were the captain of the boat and cleaner who also acted as a cook. They had to keep their mouths shut when it came to the teen's behaviour and antics, or they risked losing their jobs.

When she was done, Verity wrapped her favourite blue fluffy towel around her body and grabbed the matching smaller towel for her hair. She made her way to her cold room, switched on the heater, plugged in her hair dryer and perched on the end of the bed and began to dry her hair.

By the time Verity was finished drying her hair and her pyjamas, her mother was banging on the door.

"Honey, you hungry?" Dianne asked her daughter.

"Starved!" Verity smiled at her mother.

"Ok, well I baked your favourite, tomato and broccoli pie!"

"Great! Be right up."

"Ok baby." Dianne left the room and shut the door behind her, it was 7pm, Verity decided on food, homework then bed. It sounded like a good plan.


	5. Chapter 5 Unpleasent Dreams

**Chapter Five.**

That night, Verity's dreams were not filled with pleasant banter with her new found friends and turning up to class with her uniform a mess or absent from her body, but they were instead haunted by an unknown source.

In her sleep, Verity was walking through the fields she had strolled through earlier, only she wasn't in her jeans, wellington boots and coat, she was in her nightdress and barefoot.

She felt cold, there was a slight drizzle of rain and the moon shone very brightly in the sky. Verity could see quite clearly even though it was night.

A smell of hot candle wax filled her nose, and a grey mist was settling in the air, hanging around her form and the rest of the field.

There was a slight voice, it was almost like a deep and quiet rumble. It was not a woman's voice, she was sure of that much.

Verity looked around her, she could see that she was on top of the hill she had walked down earlier, Verity knew that tat the bottom of the hill were the ruins she had stumbled across earlier.

The girl looked behind her to the gate, but it was not there, instead there was a hedge and a gnarled old tree.

Feeling afraid and unsure, she trundled her way down the hill to where she was sure the old ruins were.

As the water cam slowly from the night sky, the grass became moist and the soil began to turn to mud, which left her feet dirty and cold and wet.

The mist did not go away, in fact, it was all around her, getting heavier and heavier so her sight was distorted by it.

Verity made her way down the grass hill, she could hear the voice and the small stream running close buy.

She made her way closer and found herself stumbling upon the ruins she had found earlier that day, the fallen stone hurt her feet as she walked unsteadily in to the old half fallen down building.

There was a man there, he was hunched over a book, chanting, and the candle got brighter. He stopped his chanting and turned to face her, his eyes were as black as coals, Verity gasped in shock, and that was when she woke up, sweat covered her body.

Verity fumbled around her night stand and switched on her lamp. The clock read alarm was due to go off in fifteen minutes anyway, so she switched off the alarm m ode on her clock, got out of bed and went in to the bathroom to wash and clean her teeth and begin her morning routine.

When she had finished in the bathroom, she went back in her room, made her bed and dressed in her uniform and placed her books in her bag ready for her lessons, glancing at her timetable she discovered that today would be the worst day ever as far as lessons were concerned; maths, physical education, drama and health education. Verity was good at health ed and physical ed, but not so good at the maths part. Good job she had an extra human biology class last period, she enjoyed that and was good at it, which was a plus.

In her letter from the school she had been informed that physical education for the term was basketball, soccer, swimming or gymnastics. Verity liked gymnastics so had chosen that for her Tuesday class and basketball for her Thursday class. She had played ball with her friends on her old roof top garden, it was never serious, just for a laugh really, but she had a feeling that none of the kids here took any sport for fun and giggles.

Once Verity had packed her sports kit, put her long hair up in a low ponytail, she grabbed her stuff and headed up to the kitchen for breakfast. The coffee machine wasn't on so she assumed her parents were staying in bed this morning, which meant a long walk to school, so she took her sneakers out of her sports bag and replaced them with her school shoes, a sensible move as a long walk isn't easily done in heeled shoes.

Verity poured herself a glass of orange juice and put some bread in the toaster, she wasn't one for a big breakfast and checked what her mother had packed her for lunch, cheese sandwich, banana, apple, cereal bar and bottle of water. Verity put that in her bag and waited for her toast. ]]It wasn't cold out so she slung her bag over her shoulder, hung her coat off it, plugged in her iPod, glugged her juice and quickly slapped some butter on her toast, grabbed her key and headed out the door.

Non-board students were given lockers for their sports kits and heavy books, which she was glad of, she really didn't want to have to carry her sports bag around on her shoulder all day as well as her regular bag, it had been a tight fit putting that in her normal bag, but she had managed.

Making her way down the steps to get going on to the track road, she munched away on her toast and turned the volume of Bon Jovi right up, her dad had been blaring "It's my Life" out of the stereo while they were packing up their old apartment so she had shamelessly stolen his CD and put in her iTunes before her dad noticed.

Walking in time of the beat she headed down the track, three miles wouldn't take her long, then she would have a few minutes to change her shoes while she waited for the bus.

Uch, she thought, the bus!

Verity wasn't used to buses, it was a small mini bus, very plush with leather seats and blacked out windows, a bit like a mafia soccer mom van, but she still didn't like it. The school had bought three small buses to pick up the non-board kids who didn't drive. She felt so cheap and common using the bus. She knew that made her sound rude, but she couldn't help the way she felt about it, and as long as she didn't share this view, she'd be ok.

Verity had reached the end of the track and was just walking down the road towards the stop, the three mile walk had taken her a half hour, it was downhill so walking back up wasn't going to be as gentle after a day at school with her heavy bag.

A car pulled up just in front of her, a green mustang, Verity looked at it for a while and got closer before she realised it was Caleb.

She walked up to the car and he had already gotten out and was standing by the boot, Verity took her ear plugs out to speak to him.

"Hey Caleb!" She said with a smile, pleased to see him.

"Hey, walking again?" He raised his eyebrows and smiled at her.

"Yeah, my parents were asleep still so I figured why not walk to the bus?"

"Forget the bus, come in with me. We'll take the roof down and arrive in style!" He walked over to the passenger door and opened it for her.

"Thank you but you don't have to keep chauffeuring me." She felt like she was a charity case, receiving lifts from him.

"I'm not, I'm merely passing you in my car on the way to school and you happen to be walking to the bus, no big deal. Get in." He smiled and she gave a small laugh.

"Alright, but the whole school is bound to be talking!"

"Let them talk, gives the chess club kids a break right?"

They both laughed at this, and Verity got in the car. Caleb closed it gently and walked around to the driver's side and got in.

"You don't mind if I change my shoes do you? I promise my feet don't smell." Verity asked as Caleb pressed the magic button which pulled back the roof.

"Not at all, you go ahead." He put the stereo system on and pulled the iPod out of his friend's bag and plugged it in to the stereo.

"Let's see what Verity Hanes is listening to." He said with a smile, waiting for the music to start, Verity took her sorts bag out of her school bag and changed out of her sneakers and in to her school shoes.

"Bon Jovi?" He asked her, and she looked at him with a smile and raised eye brows.

"You don't dig the Jovmeister? We'll, it's been nice knowing you Caleb!" She said as she pretended to gather her bags and get ready to get out the car.

Caleb laughed and grabbed her arm to pull her towards him.

"I dig the Jovmeister, definitely dig it!" He smiled.

Caleb put the car in gear and began to drive off, "It's my Life" Came on Verity started to hum along, Caleb turned it up and by the chorus they were singing, well more like shouting, along with the loud music, punching the air with their fists above their heads.

They sped passed the bust stop and some of the girls who are in the year below Verity and Caleb saw and stood shocked, the new girl was in a Mustang that belonged to Caleb Danvers, the Caleb Danvers, and he was sat with her singing! They all instantly got out their phones and began texting their other friends with the gossip.


	6. Chapter 6 Putting Reid In His Place

**Chapter Six.**

The Mustang pulled up in its usual spot, Caleb put the roof up and Verity checked her phone, she had a message from her friend Trudy, today was the day of Trudy's big date after school and she wanted to know whether or not Verity agreed with her taking the day off sick to go to the spa and go shopping.

Verity quickly text her back that yes she should indeed go to the spa and go shopping and call her later with all the details of her date. She also asked her friend for all the gossip and told her that she missed her.

Verity sighed as she put her phone back in her bag.

"Everything ok?" Caleb asked her, worried that she looked so unhappy in that moment.

"I just miss my friends. No big deal." Verity gave him a weak smile and got out the car, Caleb copied her. He noticed she had taken her iPod from the stereo but left her sports bag. Oh well, he thought, I can remind her closer to the time to save her from carrying it around all day.

Caleb walked over to Verity and put his arm around her for reassurance.

"I'm sure they miss you too, but we'll make up for it." He smiled and gave her a squeeze, Verity turned to him and put both her arms around him and gave him a quick hug.

"Thanks for everything Caleb." She pulled away, feeling slightly awkward that she hadn't known this guy for very long and she was already hugging him.

Keira, who had been watching for Caleb ever since she had received a text informing her that the new girl was getting her claws in to her guy, walked up to the pair.

"Caleb! Picking up strays now are we?" She asked in a sickly sweet yet snide voice, giving Verity a smile to match.

"Step back Keira, Verity's a friend and she can have a ride to school any time." His voice got stern, Verity could feel herself getting really annoyed. In her last school she was queen bee, not bitchy but not a door mat, and there was no way she was going to be walked over by someone who thought she was dirt.

"I'm sorry Keira, but it seems to me that you might have a problem with the fact I got a ride in to school with Caleb, perhaps you could explain to me why so I know where the boundaries are. Wouldn't want to cross them again would I?" Verity said in a similar sickly sweet voice to Keira's, only hers had a certain edge to it which the two picked up on. Verity gave her bitchiest smile to Keira.

Keira's face hardened.

"Whatever, I don't know how it was in your old school, but keep out of my way." Keira looked at Verity up and down like she was filth, turned her head and walked off to join her pack of friends who were trying hard not to giggle as they watched their leader get out in her place by the new girl.

Caleb put his hand on Verity's shoulder to motion going to first class.

They began to walk off and they could hear the group of girls talking about Verity asking who she thought she was.

"I have to say, I'm impressed." He said, "not many people stand up to Keira."

"Yeah well, start as you mean to go on. I'm not one of those girls who follows like a sheep." She smiled at him, she had a feeling she was going to like it here after all.

Caleb had insisted on walking Verity to her maths class, he left her at the door and told her that he'd be here to take her to morning break and meet the guys at the usual spot, she had insisted that she'd be fine and she would go to the library but he was adamant that she was to spend time with him.

Verity found an empty place towards the top of the room, hopefully the teacher wouldn't see her there and ask her to answer question. She really loathed math.

The class went by slowly. She noticed Aaron was two seats beneath her and he was sat with a group of boys, not really paying attention, goofing around.

Verity made notes and made sure she had it written in her school diary that she had the maths homework to be done by Thursday. Joy, she thought, now I get to struggle at home as well as at school with numbers!

The quiet bell sounded signalling it was time to leave for break. Verity gathered her things up and made her way to the door. She felt a hand on her shoulder and she turned around to see Aaron, his friends had walked out without him and it was just the two of them alone, even the teacher had dashed to the teaching lounge for coffee.

"Hey Verity, I was just wondering, are you taking human biology?" He asked awkwardly.

"Yeah I am. Higher study. Why?" She asked, curious.

"Well I'm in the intermediate study class and I need some help." He looked really embarrassed to even be in need of help. Then something in Verity's mind clicked. She knew how she could show Keira that she wasn't about to let her be bitchy and walk over her like she was mud.

"Why not ask Keira?" She said.

"Keira doesn't help anyone but herself, plus she's got a ton going on at home." He scratched the back of his head, looking like a lost kid in a supermarket. Caleb was watching from outside the class, silently slipped in to the room, neither of the two noticing.

"Sure, Library at lunch?" She smiled sympathetically.

"Sure, thanks."

"No problem, just don't be late ok?"

"Promise!" Aaron gave her a smile and turned to walk out and saw Caleb, he quickly walked out, not wanting any one to know he had just asked for help.

Verity did up her bag and walked over to Caleb.

"Hey! I didn't see you come in." She smiled at him.

"Sneaky!" He smiled. "So Pogue was meant to be in class with you but he's gone to phone his girlfriend so I was hoping to pick up the homework for him." Caleb Saw some papers on the desk, they had Pogue's name on them, and he picked them up and held them up for Verity to see.

"This it?" He asked.

"Yeah, it needs to be done by Thursday. What's up with his girlfriend? Is it serious?"

"Family crisis. Her dad lost a lot of money in Wall Street and now they're hiding out with her grandparents in San Francisco" He explained.

"I can sympathise. Do you think she'll be okay?" Verity replied, Caleb smiled at her sweetness and concern for someone she had never met.

"Yeah she'll be ok, she's used to handling indiscretions. Don't think she'll be back for a while. Pogue wants to see her, but I think she's too embarrassed at the family's fall from grace." He explained. "How was your class?" He continued.

"Horrible! I hate math!" This caused Caleb to smile.

"What's wrong with math? It's just numbers!"

"Yeah, evil numbers! I'm not very good at math, I'm ok at it, but I find it hard. And I need to be better at it so I can get in to med school."

"It might surprise you to know that Pouge's actually really good at math, sit next to him and you'll be fine!"

"Really? He wouldn't mind?"

"Why would he? Sitting next to a pretty girl and helping her out? I doubt he'd be eager to turn it down!"

Verity smiled and Caleb opened the door for her so they could get out in to the cool September air and they headed over to the picnic benches where they sat yesterday with the rest of his friends.

Caleb and Verity had arrived before the others so they were alone. Verity put her bag on the floor and sat on the bench, leant down and pulled out her water bottle and cell phone.

Trudy had replied to her text and told her that she and Freya were at the Saks day spa sipping Perrier having a blast and that everyone missed her and she was going to call tonight with all the gossip.

Caleb sat next to her and opened his can of Pepsi and took a sip.

"So what sports are you doing here?" He asked, wanting to fill the silence and wanting to know more about Verity.

"Gymnastics and basketball. You?" She asked in reply.

"Swimming and basketball. So no cheering this year?" His question caused Verity to raise her eyebrows.

"And give Keira the chance to push me off the top of a human pyramid? Hell no, I quite like not having any broken limbs!"

Caleb laughed at her reply.

"No swimming?" He asked.

"Nope, I also like not drowning. Breathing is a serious addiction I have!" She smiled at him and he smiled back.

"You can't swim or don't like to?"

"I can swim doggy paddle, but I don't really like water all that much. Not really confident in it. I used to love to swim, but a friend of mine drowned in the Hamptons two years back and it kind of out me off."

Caleb squeezed her hand.

"If you enjoy it then start again, you and I will have to go for a swim. I have a pool at my house, it's not big and you can stand up in the deep end and the water comes up to your chin. Well it does on me, you're kind of short!" His comment earned him a playful smack on the arm.

"I'm not short, I'm perfectly average. Anyway, good things come in small packages!" She smiled,

"See Tyler, there's hope for you yet!" Reid's voice boomed from behind them, Reid was laughing away and Tyler was stood there blushing.

"Thanks Caleb, I'd like that." Verity smiled, before accepting a brownie from Tyler who sat next to her.

Verity turned to look at Reid.

"Reid, there's no need to put your inadequacies on Tyler, there are far too many of them for him to handle!" She said, causing Caleb and Tyler to laugh and Reid to sit down in silence and eat his brownie.


	7. Chapter 7 Educating Aaron

**Chapter Seven.**

Verity had shared her classes with either Caleb or Pogue. Caleb Was looking forward to getting Verity back in to swimming, hopefully it would make up for the fact that she was missing her friends, and Keira had taken a dislike to her so she was the least popular kid at school now.

It was lunchtime and Caleb and Pogue had made their way to lunch to meet Tyler and Reid, and Verity had gone off to the library to meet Aaron, Caleb was very sceptic and didn't think he would even bother to show up so was very surprised to get a text from Verity saying he was there before she was and had bought snacks so she wouldn't see them until later, she had even out a kiss at the end of the text which made Caleb smile.

"What you smiling at bro?" Pogue asked, taking a bite out of his burger.

"Verity. Aaron actually showed up. Guess she won't be joining us after all." Caleb said, texting her back: Not a prob, see ya later x.

"Reckon he'll try it on?" Reid asked slurping his coke.

"I hope not." Caleb had a bad feeling so decided after he had eaten he would linger in the library to keep an eye on her.

Meanwhile, in the library, Aaron was sat at a desk with Verity, surrounded by books and snacks. He had surprised Verity by even being there, and he was actually paying attention, they had finished his work, it was simple, basic anatomy and chemical reactions within the body, he had picked it up pretty quick and seemed to be doing ok after the few struggles at the beginning.

"So why does Keira hate me so much? I've hardly said anything to her." Verity asked quietly, aware of the librarian's eagle eyes sweeping across the vast room.

"She doesn't hate you, she just envies you I guess. She has a bad home life and you're kind of everything she wants to be, pretty and friendly with Caleb." He answered honestly.

"You think I'm pretty?" She asked.

"Yeah, really pretty."

"I figured I was a bit of a plain Jane! What's wrong with her home life?"

"She lives with her Gran, her mom left for a cruise with a toy boy and her dad walked out. She hasn't seen either of them in three years, occasionally gets a postcard. Don't tell her you know though, she'd kill me if she knew I'd told you."

"I won't, I promise. You know I'm nothing to envy, my dad had a breakdown form working on Wall Street and we nearly lost everything. My mom works now and he stays at home, writing a novel. I've been hauled here where I have no friends and a much smaller house and a less lavish lifestyle than I used to have."

"Well, you're buddies with Caleb and she's been crushing on him since day one, so that's going to get her hackles up."

"What can I do to get her to stop hating me?"

"I don't know. I'll talk to her. Hey, lunch is nearly over, do you want to grab a quick drink?"

"I left my gym bag in Caleb's car so I need to get it. But how about tomorrow?"

"Sure, can I have your cell number? I can call you if I get stuck on my homework."

"Sure, my phone's always on any way!" Verity gave Aaron her number, gathered up the books and out them on the cart while Aaron put their candy wrappers in the bin and handed her book bag to her.

"Call you later. Thanks again." Aaron said to her as they walked out the door.

"Not a problem, but if you get stuck again, just ask for help, don't struggle." She smiled.

"Promise!" Aaron quickly gave her a small kiss on the cheek and his cheeky smile before hurrying off to meet Keira for their next class together.

Caleb had been watching the whole time, really surprised to see Aaron was being decent and honest with Verity.

His cell started to vibrate and Verity's name popped up on the screen, she still had her back to him.

Smiling he answered quietly.

"Hey!" He said.

"Hey Caleb, my gym bags in your car."

"Is it? Well we should go get it."

"Sure, you sound quiet, where are you?"

"Behind you." He tapped her shoulder making her jump.

She turned to look at him, a mischievous smile spread across his face. She hung up the phone and gave him a mock punch on the arm.

"Caleb! You scared me!" She exclaimed.

"Couldn't help myself!"

"What were you doing in the library?"

"Returning books."

"Didn't have you down for the book type."

"Curiouser and curiouser! Shall we get your gym kit?" He smiled.

"That would be great, don't want to play basketball in my bra and panties!"

This gave Caleb a mental image he was embarrassed to have outside the library.

"Ok, so we should probably hurry up then!" He said, both of them wondering towards the door.

They had got Verity's kit from out his car under the watchful eye of Keira's gang, she was nowhere to be seen though. Caleb was chatting away about the up and coming dance and how he was going to have to teach her to drive, and she was chatting away about the choir practice she would usually be undertaking in New York ready for her schools Christmas concert.

Before either of them knew it, they were outside the gym hall changing rooms.

"I'll meet you at the car after school, pick up your swimming kit." Caleb told her.

"Swimming kit?" She looked at him confused.

"Yeah, you're going to get back in to swimming. Remember I told you I have a pool?"

"Gosh I forgot, I'm so sorry Caleb! That would be great. Does your mother know you're bringing a strange girl home for private swimming lessons?" She raised an eyebrow at him, teasing him.

"I don't think she'll mind too much. Besides, she probably won't even notice we're there." Caleb smiled and left, while Verity went through to the changing room and began to get ready for the next class. She noticed Keira had come in too, closely followed by her gang.

"Verity, tell me again, how have you managed to ensnare Caleb Danvers? I must learn your secret." Keira said snidely.

"Well it certainly wasn't by being bitchy. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to put my bag in that locker behind you." Verity squeezed past the curly haired girl and placed her stuff in the locker and locked it, securely fastening the key to her shorts with the safety pin while making her way to the basketball court.

She saw Pogue out the corner of her eye sitting on the indoor bleachers and went over.

"Hey, sorry I missed you today at lunch." She said, standing in front of the scruffy haired boy.

"No worries. Have a free period, came to watch your ball skills." He mentally cringed, what a sentence to say when you're trying to chat a girl up.

Verity raised an eyebrow and a grin spread across her face.

"Good job Reid isn't here to take that the wrong way." She replied, watching a smile play across his lips.

"Yeah I can't believe I said that!"

"No worries. I nearly had a run in with Keira in the locker room." Verity told him, taking the seat next to him.

"What did she say to you?" He gave her a worried look, he knew how vicious that girl could be when she wanted.

"Just asked me how I managed to ensnare Caleb." She said, mocking the way she had been spoken to earlier. "I have a horrible feeling that curly Sue is going to truly and bludgeon me to death with a basketball. If she does, please tell my mother an open casket will be extremely unadvised!"

This comment caused Pogue to smile.

"I will, I promise! So how have you managed to ensnare Caleb?"

"I haven't! We're just friends!" Verity heard the other girls come in to the hall and the teacher was handing out colour vests as they came in.

"Besides, who said it's Caleb I want to ensnare?" Verity said standing up. "By the way, my ball skills are great." She winked at a smiling Pogue and jogged off to get her vest and was put in the opposite team to Keira.

Pogue was slightly taken back by the comment, he liked Verity, and he knew Caleb liked Verity, so he wasn't going to compete against his friend for her affections.

Pogue watched the very biased and unfriendly game of basketball; the teacher didn't seem to care.

He text Caleb to say where he was, Caleb was annoyed he was skipping class, but insisted he stay to keep an eye on Keira and Verity.

Pogue had just received a text from Reid asking for a sneaky pic of Verity in her gym shorts when he heard the sound of a body making contact with the solid floor of the sports hall, the sound was a cross between a crash and a slap. He looked up to see Verity on the floor with Keira standing above her, smirking. The teachers whistle blew and Keira was sent to change. Verity sat up and rubbed her head. Pogue could see blood down the side of her face and ran over and landed at her side, placing an arm around her, looking at her face.

"Are you ok? What happened?" He fired the questions at her.

"Yeah I'm ok." She replied, sounding a little groggy.

"Parry! Take Verity to the medical wing." The teacher instructed. "The rest of you, get back to the game!" She blew her whistle and the crown departed.

Verity stood up with some assistance from Pogue, and he had to quickly grab a full hold of her and she passed out, nearly crashing to the floor.

The teachers back was turned, she would be no help.

Pogue quickly picked her up, carrying her bridal style out the door and headed towards the medical wing as fast as his legs would carry the both of them.

Good job she's light, he thought to himself.


	8. Chapter 8 Argument With A Basket Ball

Chapter Eight.

It didn't take long for Pogue to carry Verity to the medical wing of the old yet vast school, actually it only took a few seconds as he used his powers to get them there quickly.

As soon as he appear at the door, a nurse quickly opened the door for them.

"A ball hit Verity in the face and she fell to the floor, she stood up but passed out." Pogue sounded a little panic struck. How was going to explain this to the rest of their friends?

"Lay her down on bed three, what's her name?" The middle aged nurse asked as she led Pogue and Verity to the bed.

"Verity Hanes." He replied.

"I'll get her file and the doctor." The nurse turned and quickly left. Pogue felt his phone buzzing in his pocket. He looked at Verity, blood on the right side if her face, still passed out but breathing.

Pogue looked at the phone, Caleb was calling. He answered.

"Yeah?" He said.

"Pogue, what happened to Verity, I heard Kira smacked her with a ball and she passed out. Where are you?" The older boy's voice boomed slightly.

"Med wing. Doctors going to have a look at her now. She was ok 'till she stood up off the floor, then she passed out." Pogue explained.

"I'm on my way. Call me if anything changes."

"Will do." Pogue hung up the phone just as the nurse arrived with the school doctor.

"I hear Miss Hanes took a basketball to the head?" The doctor said, checking her cut.

"Yeah, then she got up off the floor and passed out. Will she be ok?" Pogue fussed.

"Should be fine, but we'll send her for a scan at the hospital just to be sure, could be mild concussion." The doctor placed an IV needle in Verity's hand, seconds after it was in place, her eyes began to open.

"Where am I?" She asked, blinking under the harsh light of the medical wing, raising a hand to her face, only to see the blood.

She looked at Pogue.

"Why am I bleeding?" She asked.

"Keira hit you with a basketball, you fell." Pogue explained.

"Miss Hanes, we're going to send you to the hospital for a scan to double check everything, you were out cold for quite a while. Do you feel any pain?" The doctor asked as a nurse hooked up a bag of fluids to the drip in Verity's arm.

"My head hurts a bit, and my face throbs." She said.

"I doubt the cut will need stitches, it's a small gash from the impact of the ball. I'll arrange transport to the hospital."

"No need, I'll take her." Caleb's voice boomed around the room as he came in through the door.

"And you are?" The doctor asked.

"Caleb Danvers, a friend of Verity's." He stood next to Pogue and the bedside.

The doctor turned to Verity.

"Miss Hanes, would like me to arrange transport or are you well enough to go with your friends?" He asked.

"I'll be fine to go with them. Thanks you."

"Very well. I'll get you the forms you'll need to hand in at reception. Nurse, if you could take down the bag but leave the needle. I'll be right back." The doctor left and the nurse quickly took the fluids away and followed him. Verity nursed her now sore hand.

"I've asked Tyler to get your stuff from gym class. Want me to call your mom?" Caleb asked.

"No thanks, she'll only freak out. And thanks for the offer of the ride to the hospital. I'll call my dad when we get there so you guys can go back to class." She said to them.

"We'll stay with you. I'll be back with car." Caleb said and left.

Pogue sat next to Verity on the bed.

"You're not going to be sick are you?" He asked. Verity let out a little giggle.

"Caleb's driving isn't that bad Pogue." She smiled, so he smiled back.

"So why you were at my gym class anyway? You stalking me or something?" She said.

"No, I had nothing to do so think I'd see how well you could play basketball. And apparently you can't play that well." He joked, Verity gave him a playful smack on the arm and say up and swung her legs to the side of the bed so she was sat directly next to Pogue, their bodies touching lightly.

"Well thank you bringing me here, and taking care of me." She said, giving him a kiss on the check. "You're a real hero Pogue Parry."

Pogue looked at her, he couldn't believe she had kissed him, even if it was only his cheek.

They were still facing each other, he took the opportunity to make a move. It was bold, but gentle.

He placed a light kiss on her lips, lingering for a second longer, just to show it was more than a friendly kiss, before moving back slightly, allowing Verity to make the next move of she wanted to.

Verity leant forward in to him and kissed him back, longer and a little deeper than the kiss Pogue had given her.

They heard the door open and suddenly stopped, looking guilty.

"Car's ready guys." Caleb informed them, and the doctor followed immediately after with the paper's Verity would need to get her scans.

Pogue stood up and watched Verity do the same, ready to catch her if she fell. The two of them followed Caleb out to the car in silence and got in. The drive to the hospital seemed to take for ever.


	9. Chapter 9 Kiss? What Kiss?

Chapter Nine.

With Verity now having her scans and x-rays, Pogue and Caleb were left alone in the waiting room.

"So Tyler's dropped her stuff at her house, there was no one there so it's by the front door ready for when she gets home." Caleb said. "What really happened?"

"Verity saw me on the bleachers, came over to say hi, Keira had cornered her in the locker room but Verity mad her back off. Apparently whatever she said didn't work because I had a text from Reid and when I looked up, Verity was on the floor. Keira had thrown the ball at her face, knocking her over. Verity stood up and passed out." Pogue explained yet again.

"How did you get to the med wing so fast? It's the other side of campus."

"I used Caleb, ok?"

"Why would you use, you know what is dies to you."

"She was out cold Caleb, you would have done the same." Pogue had never raised his voice at Caleb, he was normally the calm one who backed his friend's decisions no matter what, but today must be the first time for them to clash.

"I guess I would have done. You ok though?" Caleb calmed down and Pogue could feel himself calming too.

"Yeah man, I'm good. You?"

"Fine. So what was the kiss?"

Pogue paused for a moment before answering.

"What kiss?" Pogue lied.

"I saw you kiss Verity, and I saw her kiss you back. Things were getting pretty heated back there."

"I guess." Pogue looked at the floor, guilty that he had betrayed his girlfriend.

"What about Kate?"

"What about Kate? You know her excuse for last summer; out of sight out of mind."

Caleb remembered Kate's excuse for hurting his friend. Kate made Pogue promise not to tell his friends what she had done over the summer last year, and who with. But Pogue told Caleb and the others, and they kept it quite that they knew. But ever since, Kate's indiscretion and turned in to indiscretions, again and again. And each time Pogue would forgive her, but he was always letting his eye wander, even though he never touched. It was always good to look, right?

"Pogue, I know it was hard for you, but do you really think that acting out the same way she does is right?" Caleb, ever the voice of reason, said to his torn friend.

"I like her Caleb."

"I know you do Pogue, but you have Kate. You need to make a decision before you make a move. It's only right."

"Make a decision about what?" Verity's voice filled their ears, she was stood in front of them, looking bruised and tired.

"Doctor's said just a mild concussion and I can go home, but no fighting with basket balls anymore!" Verity said, smiling and waving her discharge papers around as a sign of victory.

"That's great Verity." Pogue got up and smiled, he walked over to her, about to hug her but caught Caleb watching, so instead he patted her back. "Shall we get out of here?"

"Yes please! If you guys aren't in a rush to get back or anything, I could make you guys something to eat. I make an awesome grilled cheese?" Verity said, trying to persuade the two boys in to staying with her a little longer.

"We have a swim meet, but we'll drop you off. And I'll check on in you later, if that's ok?" Caleb asked.

"Sure. You'll have to tell me all the rumours that are flying around school so I know what to expect tomorrow." Verity smiled, hiding her disappointment. After the awful dreams, she didn't want to be at home alone. Her father and mother would be at the old Pope house working.

"Car's out front. You need to sign out or anything?" Caleb asked, standing up.

"Nope. I'm free to go."

"Then let's get you gone V!" Pogue said, wanting to get out of the hospital.

The three of them walked out of the Emergency Room and over to the Mustang on the car park, Caleb unlocked it and they got in, Pogue in the back again behind Caleb so he could look at Verity. She had a black and purple bruise on the one side of her face which no amount of concealer would cover up for a good few weeks.

"So do I look all hard-core with the bruise?" She joked, they had been in the car a few minutes and wanted to break the silence.

"No, more like you had a fight with Mike Tyson." Pogue said.

"And lost!" Caleb added, causing the two boys to laugh. Verity mock pouted.

"Well I guess you guys are going to put up with me wearing a paper bag on my head until the bruise goes!" She said to them.

"Why bother? Keira's probably told everyone you guys had a show down any way." Pogue added.

"A showdown huh?" Verity began to think about her revenge.

"Verity, whatever it is, don't do it! You'll only make it worse!" Caleb said to her.

"All I was thinking was if she's told everyone we had a showdown, then it'll get back to Aaron. And Aaron wants me to tutor him more." She informed them.

"So?" Pogue asked, giving her a questioning look.

"So, if Aaron wants me to tutor him, then I will. I'll tutor him during every spare second he has, therefore, pissing Keira off even more. She wants a show down she's got one, just not a physical one."

"I see, you're using your wit while she uses her gossip mongering." Caleb nodded.

"Yup!" Verity smiled at him.

"I still don't like it V. You'll get in more trouble." Caleb worried.

"Keira has a little thing for you, by hanging out with you I'm pissing her off. You want me to stop hanging out with you?" Verity asked, giving her puppy dog eyes which she used to win so many arguments with her father when they were in the city about her clothing allowance.

Caleb thought for a moment.

"If she bitch slaps you, I won't be there to mop up the tears." He finally said.

"Fine. You're such a spoil sport Caleb."

"Just trying to keep you safe."

They were going up the lane to her house now. The house which made her have nightmares, ever since she went to those stupid ruins.

Caleb pulled the car up.

"Tyler dropped your stuff off. See you tomorrow?" Caleb asked.

"Sure, thanks again for taking me to the hospital guys. Enjoy your swim." Verity smiled at Caleb and at Pogue.

"Take care Verity, see you tomorrow." Pogue said.

Verity got out the car and walked up the steps to her front door, she leant down and got her key out her bag and unlocked the door, she gave the boys a final wave and went in.

As soon as they saw her door was shut, Pogue and Caleb drove back down the lane and to the school.


	10. Chapter 10 The Path

Chapter Ten.

Verity went down to her room, threw her stuff on the bed and got out her phone. There was a text from Reid, asking her if she really got beat up by Kiera, a text from Tyler saying he hoped she was ok and her bags were waiting for her at home, and one from Aaron, asking if he could study with her and that he was sorry Keira had whacked her with a ball.

Sighing, Verity replied to each one; "No Reid, I didn't get beat on by Keira, just a basketball to the face X", "Thanks Tyler, you're a star XX", "Hey Aaron, how did you get my number? No worries about the ball in the face thing, I'm fine :D".

With all the messages replied to, Verity went to bathroom and checked out the bruising. It throbbed like mad, and her head hurt, but she'd manage.

Verity went back in to her room and changed in to jeans and sweater, grabbed her iPod and digital camera and went upstairs to the kitchen and put on her wellingtons.

She was determined that the stupid old ruins were just ruins and were nothing to be afraid of, so she set out to find them again and confront her fears.

Plugging the buds in her ears, she turned up her latest download; Michael Jackson's greatest hits.

The music spurring her on faster and faster she finally came to the ruins again. There was nothing different about them. Old and crumbling, trees and ivy growing in and around where the buildings remains stood. Nothing sinister now it was daylight, unlike the last time she was here and the light was fading fast.

Verity took out her camera from her jeans pocket and began to take photos. From the side, then the front, then the other side of the old house/barn. The she went around to the back and took photos of it from that angle and the entire side was open, there was no roof, so she stepped over the loose bricks and stood in the centre and took photos. How could this silent and old place be so eerie and dangerous in her dreams, when it was just bricks during the day?

Verity had a look at the pictures she had taken, everything seemed pretty normal.

That was when she spotted the path.

A small foot path leading away from he ruins she was in and away from the fields that were familiar to her.

Curious, Verity looked at the time. It was only 3pm, plenty of time until the dark came, but not time enough to follow the path as well as get back home.

Verity took a photo of the path and put her camera away. She picked up a large fallen branch and placed it besides the beginning of the path, to remind her to go up there on the weekend.

Verity made her way back home, listening to dance music this time, to get her mood up and take her mind off her spooky dreams.

Verity's walking got slower as her body started to ache from the pounding it gave the court floor earlier on in the day. He face hurt and her head throbbed from where it tried to dent the floor.

Verity slowly pushed herself on, thoughts of a hot bubble bath and early night in her warm bed keeping her going.

The walked seemed to take for ever, the light in the sky was fading. She wondered what time her parents would be home this evening.

She trundled along up the path to her house, she saw something that stopped her in her tracks and made her blood run along her body.

There was a light on in her kitchen, a light she had not left on when she left the house.

Looking around her and seeing no one, Verity walked on, reasoning with herself that it was her parents, back home early.

The air got colder, so Verity walked faster, her body protesting the entire time.

As she neared the courtyard of her home, verity felt relief when she saw a familiar green Mustang where her parent's car was usually parked.

Finally, Verity made it through her front door, only to be ambushed by a worried Caleb who hugged her and shook her as he started saying something.

Verity looked confused and took out her headphones from her ears.

"What?" She asked.

"You had me worried, you weren't answering your phone so I came over and you weren't here. Why didn't you pick up your phone?" He let go of her, calming down.

"Why would I take my phone on a walk?" She asked, talking off her wellingtons and switching the kettle on.

"Well why not? You took you iPod with you!" He sat down.

"And my camera. Coffee?"

"Please. Where did you go Verity?" He watched Verity make them both a coffee each and sat down.

"A walk. After my first day at school, I went for a walk and found these old ruins of a bard or house. Anyway, after that I kept having weird dreams so I went back today to show myself that there's nothing sinister about it. Want to see the pictures?"

Caleb nodded and she handed him her camera and got the pictures up on the screen for him to see.

Caleb frowned as he looked through them.

"You shouldn't go there alone. You shouldn't go there at all. Especially when you were knocked out cold." He said, handing her camera back to her and sipping his coffee.

"Well I do and I did. Besides, there's this path there that I want to follow, was thinking about walking it this weekend. Want to come with me?" She asked.

"Actually, I already had an idea for this weekend. Getting you in the pool, movie marathon with the others, maybe some homework. Going to Nicky's too, on Friday. You should come." Caleb said, hoping to distract her from walking the path and going back to the ruins, he had a bad feeling about them, which got worse when Verity confessed she had been having weird dreams


	11. Chapter 11 Rumours & Weekends

Chapter Eleven.

The rest of the week flew by, but it was not at all uneventful. Keira had passed a rumour around campus that Verity had gotten too big for her boots and was boasting about getting it together with Caleb, and keira was standing up for the golden boy when she "accidently" got Verity in the face with a basketball.

The boys knew that none of this was true, so squashed the rumours as best as they could, and to their surprise, so did Aaron.

Verity had been tutoring him, but he was getting better, so they spent an hour in the library doing homework together.

The cut and bruises on Verity's face were fading from a vibrant deep purple to a light purple with green. But she still insisted on covering them up with what felt like seven inches of foundation.

The bell for last period signalled that it was time for all the boys and girls to leave their classes and relax until Monday morning.

Verity had walked over to Caleb's car, seeing that he wasn't there, she decided to perch on the bench near the Mustang and wait.

Verity had gotten out her copy of King Lear, which she was studying for Literature class and began to trundle through the third act when a voice interrupted her train of thought.

"Hey V, waiting for Caleb?" Tyler's voice filled her ears. Verity looked up and smiled.

"Hey Tyler, yeah he's giving me a ride home. Haven't seen him have you?" She asked.

"I think he's doing extra swimming. I'll give you a ride if you like, save you waiting out in the cold."

Verity began to shiver, she hadn't noticed how chilled it was outside.

"You don't ever drive past my place Tyler that would be asking too much." Verity felt bad, she wished her grandfather would hurry up and get her a car already.

"It's no worries Verity, I kind of wanted to talk to you any way." The shy boy looked down at his feet. Verity stood up.

"That's really kind of you Tyler, I'll text Caleb and tell him I got a ride sorted."

Tyler looked up and smiled at Verity, and they made their way over to his large hummer.

Tyler unlocked the door.

"Please tell me you have a ladder in your bag so I can get in this thing!" Verity joked.

"You're not that short! And it's not that high up!" Tyler smiled, and got in with ease.

There was only one way for Verity to get in the huge monstrous vehicle that stood in front of her while wearing a short skirt, and that was to jump and hope for the best.

After Verity had miraculously gotten in without showing her underwear, Tyler started the engine and Verity clicked her seatbelt in place and text Caleb.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Verity asked as Tyler turned down the music.

"You're going to Nicky's tonight right?" He asked, concentrating on the road.

"Yeah, why?"

"You're not going with Aaron are you?"

Verity spluttered a shocked laugh.

"Why would I be going with Aaron?"

"In the locker room today, he boasting that you and he were hitting it together."

"Hitting it? As in sleeping together?"

"Yeah. You're not are you?"

"Tyler, of course I'm not! That would be like walking up to Keira and asking her to gouge out my eyes! Plus, he's not really type. All that hair, he must spend more time washing it and putting products in it than I do with mine!" Verity laughed, which caused Tyler to laugh, relieved.

"That's good. So who's picking you up tonight?" Tyler went shy again, no longer laughing.

"I don't know. Probably Caleb, unless I can get a lift from my mom or dad. Why?"

"Wondering. You know I think Pogue likes you."

"What?"

"Pogue, I think he likes you Verity. A lot."

"He has a girlfriend. Nothing's going to happen there."

"Because he has a girlfriend?"

"Yeah I guess. He isn't really my type though."

"Far too much hair?" Tyler joked.

"Yea, I'm pretty sure he plucks his eye brows too!" Verity said, causing Tyler to laugh. "Too much muscle, I think having a nice set of strong arms around you can make you feel safe, but I prefer the romantic type, not the bad boy biker type. Don't get me wrong, Pouge's awesome, but not in that way. Not for me anyway."

"What about Reid?"

"Reid? Oh my God Tyler, what about him?" Verity giggled, she was shocked with the questions that were being fired at her.

"Well, Reid can usually get any girl he wants." Tyler informed her.

"So? He's not hit on me and if he ever does, I have no intention on hitting on him back."

"That's good, put him in his place."

"What's with the questions Tyler?"

"Nothing, just trying to get to know you."

"You already do know me."

"I guess I want to know what you look for in a guy."

"Why, you thinking of asking me out?" Verity wasn't sure if she was teasing or being serious, but the blush that spread across Tyler's cheek showed her that he probably was.

Tyler said nothing.

"'Cause I'd say yes if you did." Verity blushed now. Tyler smiled.

When Pogue had kissed Verity, she had wanted more than anything for the kiss to last longer, and never to stop. But Pogue had a girlfriend, so for her to want him was wrong. He had the bad boy image she had always been drawn to. Maybe it was time to try something else, a good boy instead. A sweet natured boy, who would hug her when she needed it, tell her she was beautiful, wipe away her tears if she got upset, and celebrate good grades with her.

Verity thought that Caleb was drawn to her, but the more time they spent together, the more she realised that it would never happen. Caleb was too committed to his mother, his education, his swimming and his friends to be side-tracked. There wasn't any chemistry between them any way, they were more like brother and sister than anything else.

Tyler pulled up to Verity's house. Her parent's car wasn't there, she was going home to an empty house again.

"Want to come on?" Verity asked.

"I have to get back, swim meet."

"Ok, so I'll see you later at Nicky's?"

"Sure."

Verity was about to get out the car when Tyler's hand gently pulled her back in.

"DO you want to go to Nicky's with me?" He asked, Verity looked in to his piercing blue eyes and smiled.

"I'd love to."

"I'll pick you up at eight, or do you need longer to get ready?"

"Eights perfect." They smiled at each other and Verity kissed his cheek and got out the car.

She waved and walked up the steps to her front door and gave one last wave before she went inside, she watched Tyler drive away and she did a little victory dance, then looked at her cell. It was time to call her New York friends and spill the gossip with them.


	12. Chapter 12 Angering Aaron

Chapter Twelve.

Tyler drove back to the dorms, he had just asked Verity to go with HIM to Nicky's. And she didn't turn him down. All day he had been worried that she was interested in Pogue. Tyler had seen the way he was looking at her, he had also seen the way Aaron was looking at her. Tyler didn't think there was anything behind what Aaron had been saying, but he wanted to make sure, and to give Verity a heads up.

Now all Tyler had to do was quietly tell Caleb he was picking Verity up tonight ad get through the swim meet and decide what to wear. He wanted to look his best, but not like he had tried too hard. Casual but smart.

Tyler parked the large car, ran to his room, grabbed his swim kit and headed out towards the locker rooms.

The locker room was empty, he was late. Quickly, Tyler hurried in to his shorts and out to the pool and slipped in to the water and began swimming, the coach was busy talking to some of the other boys on the team, so hopefully he wouldn't notice.

By the time the laps and races had times had been swum and logged, it was 6pm, everyone got out the pool when the coach blew his whistle. Tyler just dried and dressed, aiming to have a shower back at the dorms when he heard Aaron's voice, boasting about his latest conquest.

"Well boys, she's a firecracker in the sack! Knows how to tease and please!" He laughed and his cronies smiled. One of them, the shortest one piped up with his own opinion.

"That Verity Hanes sure has kept you up on your toes!" Shorty laughed.

"And on my knees, and my back." Aaron joked and they all laughed.

Tyler couldn't control it any more. That was his friend they were talking about, lying about.

Before he knew what he was doing, Tyler stalked up to Aaron and gave him a hard shove in to the lockers, causing the room to go silent.

"Don't talk about her like that. She's never slept with you Aaron, and she never will." Tyler was so angry, he could no longer control himself.

Aaron resumed his posture after a heavy push in to the chest and got closer, squaring his chest and jaw.

"What would you know about it faggot?" He gave Tyler a littler push. "What are you to her huh? A nobody is what. She'd never take a second look at you."

Tyler stood straight. Caleb, Reid and Pogue had come to see what the commotion was, Caleb was about to step in when he made his next move.

Tyler put his hands in Aaron's shoulders, pushed him up against the locker and placed his right forearm against the other boy's neck in order to keep him in place, and when Aaron tried to struggle, Tyler held his arm harder against his throat.

"She told me she never slept with you, and she wouldn't lie." Tyler shouted. Caleb and Pogue pulled him off Aaron, and Reid smirked. Aaron stood forward.

"What are you? Her little pet? You have no chance." Aaron taunted. And that was the moment Tyler saw red. He turned around and hit Aaron square in the side of the cheek, knocking him to the floor and knocking him out cold.

Tyler looked at his friends and quickly grabbed his things and left the locker room, practically running down to his dorm.

When he unlocked the door, he grabbed his wash kit and went straight to the shower, he didn't want to hang around in case Aaron found him in there.

As Tyler was showering, the three of his friends made their way to his and Reid's dorm room.

"What the Hell has gotten in to him?" Caleb asked, looking at his phone. He had a message from Verity; Got a lift to Nicky's planned, see you there x. He replied quickly; See you there, we need to talk x. He hoped verity wouldn't get the wrong idea, but she had to know what Aaron was saying and that Tyler had punched him out cold.

Tyler walked in to the room, dumped his dirty laundry at the foot of his bed and looked at his friends.

"What?" He asked.

"You punched Abbot out cold! Way to go man!" Was Reid's response.

"That was pretty wild bro." Pogue was the next one to speak.

"What were you thinking Tyler?" Came Caleb's reply. Always the senior one, the one in charge and the reasonable one of them all.

"He can't talk about Verity like that, she's our friend and we owe it to her to speak up for her." Tyler was still mad, he walked over to his small closet and pulled out his dark jeans, grey t-shirt and black shirt as well as his black trainers and clean underwear.

"You can't just go around hitting people Tyler, he's going to get mad and we'll be the ones picking up the pieces." Caleb said, following Tyler around the room and then had the bathroom door shut in his face.

"She doesn't deserve to be spoken about like that Caleb!" Tyler's voice came from behind the door. He had dressed and began to shave as Caleb ranted about how Abbott was in the wrong and now Tyler was to, Reid stood up for Tyler by telling Caleb Aaron deserved the punch and Pogue agreed saying that he was close to losing it only Tyler had done so first.

Tyler combed his hair, put on some body spray and his watched and glanced at the time. 7pm, he had to leave soon to pick up Verity.

He walked out the bathroom, put his wallet and his keys in his pocket and picked up his cell and text Verity; Be with you soon x. Tyler put the cell in his pocket and grabbed his jacket.

"Where are you going Tyler?" Caleb asked him.

"To Nicky's. You know, shoot some pool, and have a few beers, the usual thing for a Friday night. You going too or are you staying in and sulking because I kicked Abbotts ass and you didn't?" Tyler spoke, everyone was slightly taken aback by this as he never usually spoke like that.

"Yeah I'm going. Just be careful Ty, when Aaron comes round, he's going to be pissed." Caleb said. Tyler nodded and walked out the door and made his way to his car.


	13. Chapter 13 First Kisses

Chapter Thirteen.

Tyler drove to Verity's house a little faster than he should have done. But he wanted to see her, he wanted to tell her that Aaron had been spelling rumours, he was going to leave out the violence that he had caused, but wanted her to be aware of the type of person she had been helping.

He pulled up to the Hanes household. He knew it was a quirky building, but had never set foot inside.

There were no other cars in the courtyard, this made him slightly nervous.

Tyler parked and locked his precious Hummer and walked up the steps to Verity's front door and knocked. Verity opened the door and smiled at Tyler, her innocent and pale face surrounded by her dark brunette hair, her almond shaped eyes glistened at the beautiful blue eyed boy in front of her.

Tyler saw Verity in all her beauty and too the sight int. The slim girl was wearing black hot pants, a dusky pin silk camisole and a cream light weight cardigan. Her hair was half up and half down, the hair that was left down, flowed around her shoulders and face, slightly wavy where it had been left to dry naturally. Her feet were in black, patent high heeled sandals which included a ribbon which wrapped around her ankles and edged up towards her calves and did up and a bow. Her make-up was minimal, a little foundation, some shimmering pink eye shadow and mascara which made her long eye lashes look longer, and more seductive. Her lips had a light covering of sheer opal gloss.

"Hey Tyler, are you ok? You look like you're a million miles away there?" Her gentle voice said, breaking his trance.

"I'm fine. You look so beautiful Verity." His managed to say, after mustering all his strength to speak.

The innocent beauty that stood before him smiled before speaking again to the lovely boy who paid her a lovely compliment.

"Thank you Tyler." She said, blushing slightly for she had always been the centre of mass attention, but never singular attention from such a lovely young man with such intense Cobalt blue eyes.

"Do you want to come it for a while?" She asked, hoping he would say yes so she could have him to herself for a short time.

"Yes." He said finally, not sure if he felt comfortable being alone in the house with the object of his desires.

Verity smiled and nodded as she moved out of the door way to let Tyler in. She could tell he was nervous, she was nervous too. She had never allowed herself to be this alone with someone, apart from Caleb, who had surprised her the other day by showing up when he was worried that she hadn't answered any of her calls.

Verity closed the door behind him and finally mustered up the courage to speak again.

"Do want a beer?" she asked.

Verity knew when she was dressing in to her outfit that these clothes were popular in New York, but the trend hadn't set in here in Ipswich yet, and she was going to be the first to wear hot pants out as an evening wear garment.

"Sure, thanks." Tyler said, looking at her toned legs. She wasn't a particularly tall girl, but the heels and the exposed skin of her leg made her seem taller than she really was.

Verity went to the fridge to get out a bottle of Budweiser for her date, she took off the cap and poured herself a vodka and lemonade.

Tyler watched her the whole time, thinking that he would be grateful when Kate would get back to town after being sick, so she could be a friend to Verity, because with Keira out to get her, Verity would need all the girl friends she could get.

"Here you go." she said, handing Tyler the cold, glass bottle taking a sip from her glass.

Tyler smiled.

"Thanks." He said.

"You want to sit in the lounge? It's more comfortable than standing in the kitchen!" She smiled, nervously. Tyler nodded and followed her in to the lounge. She sat on the largest cream, leather couch and patted the seat beside her and smiled. Tyler sat and smiled back at her.

"Did you have good session at the pool?" Verity asked.

"Yeah it was good." He said, then took another swig from his beer. "I need to tell you something. And it's not really nice." He looked serious. Verity gulped and nodded before speaking.

"Tell me." She said, unsure if she wanted to know or not.

"Aaron is telling all his cronies that you're sleeping with him. I asked you if it was true and you said no, but at the meet today, in the locker room, he was telling everyone how much of a Tom cat you were in bed. I hit him and told him and his gang he was lying. He didn't like that."

Verity didn't look shocked at all, which took Tyler by surprise.

"I know. Aaron is a little insecure, his friendship with Keira is strange and strained since I started school. He's just a little boy bigging up his toy truck. You and I both know there's nothing to it, so it's ok. I 'll handle it."

Verity kissed Tyler on the cheek and they both smiled at each other.

"I just wanted you to know. I don't want you getting hurt again." Tyler said.

"I won't. I can take care of myself, and any beatings I might get along the way." Verity smiled and so did Tyler.

She took Tyler's beer and set it down on the table next to her glass. She knew she could be rejected, but didn't care, she wanted the attention, so she decided to make the boldest move she had ever made in her shot life.

Verity leant in to Tyler and kissed him, she put one hand on the back of his neck and left the other drop loosely down to his waist.

Tyler kissed her back, one hand on the back of Verity's head, entangling his fingers in her hair, and the other went around her waist.

Verity decided that as he had responded to her by deepening the kiss, she would let him decide what happened next.

So Tyler's response was to continue the kiss, letting it go a little deeper than any other kiss he had ever had and held on to her tightly, wanting to go further.


	14. Chapter 14 Q&A

Chapter 14.

Verity kissed Tyler, and Tyler kissed her back, each moment getting deeper and more passionate. Verity, which still had a tight grip on Tyler, lay her down and pulled him down towards her, bringing their bodies closer together.

Tyler, who was feeling very nervous, followed Verity's lead and laid his weight on her slight, delicate body.

Verity pulled one leg out from under Tyler, and loosely wrapped it around his waist, she noticed his kisses getting more urgent and deeper, she noticed he was holding on to her tighter, and she also noticed the bulge in his jeans.

Tyler's spare hand was supporting a lot of his weight on the sofa beneath them, but now he was feeling more adventurous, his hand stopped supporting his weight, and slid up Verity's thigh and to her waist, where it found its way to the skin on her hop underneath her camisole.

Verity was taken back slightly by his sudden confidence, but she liked it any way and kissed him deeper.

Tyler and Verity were just beginning to feel more confident with the way their bodies were touching, when the loud sound of a rock song that Verity didn't recognise, and strong vibrations began to come from Tyler's jean pocket.

"Sorry." Tyler said, turning a slight shade of red.

Verity smiled.

Tyler rolled off her and sat up, taking his phone out of his pocket.

"Hello?" He said in to the handset.

"Tyler, where are you? We're all at Nicky's!" Caleb's worried voice came out over the speaker.

"Sorry, got held up. We're on our way now."

"Fine, we were just worried about you. Whose "we" any way?" The older boy inquired.

"You'll see. Be there soon." Tyler hung up on the conversation, he didn't want to really want to go to Nicky's now, he wanted to carry on with the kiss, and he knew he should, Verity was dressed up and pretty and it would have been a pity for her to get dressed up only for him to not take her anywhere.

"The guys were wondering where we were. Do you still want to go?" Tyler asked her.

"Sure, let me just grab my coat and purse ok?" Verity stood up, kissed him quickly and went down the stairs to her bedroom, grabbed her things quickly, looked in her mother's mirror, she looked ok. Verity quickly applied a little more lip gloss and perfume and rand back up the stairs.

"So, you're CD or mine?" She said, with a smile, taking Tyler's hand and walking through to the front door.

"Ladies choice." He said, picking her house key up off the dining table and handing it to Verity.

She opened the door and stepped out, putting on her coat and setting the door to lock on the latch as soon as the door closed.

"Radio it is, I don't own CD's." She smiled as Tyler stepped through the door and the outdoor light flickered on, allowing them to see where they were going as they walked down the steps to the large, black Hummer.

"I forgot, you worship your iPod!" Tyler joked as he pressed the unlock button on the car and opened the door for his date.

"Of course, owning a store bought CD would offend it!" They both smiled, and Verity got in the passenger seat, with a little more ease than earlier now that she was wearing higher heeled shoes.

Tyler quickly shut her door and got in to the driver's seat and started the roaring engine and turned on the radio to play quietly in the background.

"So, you didn't tell the others we were going to Nicky's together?" Verity inquired, as the car began to slowly trundle out the courtyard and on to the narrow country lane.

"No, did you?" He said.

"No. Why didn't you tell them?"

"Like I said, wanted it to be a surprise."

"You just want to see the look on every one's face when we walk in together holding hands." She smiled.

"We'll be holding hands?"

"Sure, why not. If you want to...?"

"Yeah." Tyler said, causing the both of them to blush a little, but each of them being unable to see because it was dark outside the car.

"So, is Nicky's where you usually take your dates and girlfriends?" Verity asked, not really believing she had the courage to spill that question out.

"I've never taken a date to Nicky's, the movies or a diner, but never Nicky's."

"Why not?"

"Never really dated much."

"Had a girlfriend before?"

Tyler stayed silent and blushed in the dark.

"Not a serious one." He finally answered. "You had boyfriends before?" He asked, inwardly cursing himself, of course she's had boyfriends, she's was hot! He thought.

"A few, but nothing serious. Nothing passed the hand holding or kiss goodnight stage."

The car ride was silent for a few more minutes.

"Hey Verity?" Tyler finally plucked up the courage to ask.

"Yeah Tyler?" She replied, waiting in anticipation for what happened next.

"Will you go out with me?" He held his breath, waiting for the rejection that was sure to follow.

"Of course I will!" Verity said, happy he had asked her, she leant over and placed a quick peck on his cheek.

Tyler smiled too, and placed his spare hand in hers. Bon Jovi's It's My Life came on the radio.

"I love this song!" Verity said, turning it up.

"It's a good song." Tyler said, turning it up even more, the two of them singing along quietly for the rest of the journey to Nicky's.

Shortly, the sleek, black Hummer pulled up outside. It was time for the newly founded couple to go in. They both took a deep breath and took off their seatbelts in unison.

"Wait!" Verity said, as Tyler began to open his doo. He turned to face Verity, an unsure look on his face.

He was taken by surprise when she suddenly kissed him softly, he returned the kiss and they continues for a few minutes until Verity's phone bleeped, informing her that she had a text message waiting.

"Give me a sec." She said, digging in her bag for her phone, reading the text. She turned to Tyler.

"Caleb's wondering if I'm still getting a ride in." She smiled.

"Let's go in then." Tyler smiled, Verity nodded.

The two got out of the car and began to walk over to Nicky's hand in hand, and when they got through the door, they remained hand in hand.

Caleb, Reid and Pogue saw their friend walk in holding Verity's hand. At first, they didn't recognise her because she was dressed up, but as soon as they did , they stopped wondering who Tyler was with and smiled and waved at them.

"Tyler! Verity! We got you drinks!" Reid called out, causing Aaron and Keira and their group, and most of the people in Nicky's, to turn and look at the couple, who had gooey smiles on their faces.


	15. Chapter 15 Fight In The Parking Lot

Chapter Fifteen.

Aaron stared at Verity and Tyler, his knuckles going white as his grip on the pool que tightened. Keira looked at him and rolled her eyes, sliding a hand along his shoulder in order to get his attention.

"You know you've always got me." She said seductively in his ear. He looked at her, then back at Verity and shook Keira off and slammed the que down on the table and stormed off to the bar to get himself another drink.

Caleb pulled out the seat next to him and Tyler motioned for Verity to sit down, so she took off her knee length pink, blue and white checked woollen coat and hung it over the back of the seat, and sat down, placing her small bag in the middle of the table where it wouldn't get in the way of the drinks. Tyler slung his coat over the chair next to her and put an arm protectively around her shoulder and lent down to her ear.

"What do you want to drink?" He said to her, softly.

"What are you having?" She asked, turning her head to face him.

"Just a beer."

Verity wrinkled her nose, making him smile.

"Archers and lemonade?" SH asked.

"Sure. Be right back." They smiled at each other and he kissed her cheek and made his way over to the bar. Reid followed to make sure that he got a drink out of Tyler too, seeing as he had to make his own way to Nicky's.

Caleb began to ask Verity about her and Tyler when Keira sauntered over to their table.

"Hey Caleb, want to dance?" Her sickly voice asked, while her eye lashes fluttered.

"No, I'm good at the moment Keira." He replied, hating that every time he rejected her, she always tried again, the answer never changing.

"Aw come on, you can't leave to me play on my own." She pouted.

"How about asking Aaron? I'm sure he'll dance with you." Verity said, innocently, hoping for Keira to start on her so she could give the bitch a piece of her mind.

"How about you remember what it's like when you're face meets the floor?" Keira said, her innocent and sickly voice showing everyone what a slimy piece of work she could be.

Verity stood up and squared her body in front of Keira's.

"How about I show you how well New York girls play with bitches?" Verity asked, wanting Keira to offer her the chance to take it outside.

Caleb stood up and placed himself next to Verity and put an arm out in front of her waist, his hand on her hip.

"I think it would be a good idea if you left Keira." Caleb said, the authority clear in his voice.

At the bar, Reid had been quizzing Tyler about the fact he and Verity were together, and asked why they were both so late at getting to Nicky's. Tyler hinted that they were busy and forgot about the time. Reid slapped him on the shoulder, about to praise him becoming a man, when he saw the confrontation starting up between Keira and Verity.

"Uh dude, you might want to go stop your girlfriend getting in to a bitch fight with Keira." Reid said, causing Tyler to look over from the bar to where their table was.

Tyler made his way over to the table, Reid followed with the tray of drinks Tyler had just paid for-there was no way he was going to leave them on bar for someone else to enjoy.

By the time they had gotten there, Verity had basically expressed that Keira should follow her outside to see how well Verity played with other girls. By now, Aaron had come over, and Pogue had stood up, ready to defend his friend.

"Keira, let's leave the bitch to her boyfriends." Aaron snipped, roughly taking Keira's wrist and beginning to walk away.

"Hey Aaron?" Verity said loudly, moving away from Caleb's grasp.

Aaron turned around and the bar began to go quite again.

"Just because you're jealous that you're not the one I'm sleeping with, doesn't mean you have to lie about it to your cronies. And it doesn't mean you have to get your panties in a bunch over the fact that you're not getting laid." Verity gently said, a little louder than she would normally speak so everyone near them could hear.

A lot of people gasped and ooh'ed at Aaron being publically caught out in his lie. He dropped Keira's wrist and walked out of the back door, Keira and his group following him.

The group that were standing stayed stood and silent for a few moments while the bar resumed it's usual bussle and noise.

Tyler stepped over to Verity who was shaking slightly at the confrontation.

"Are you ok?" He said softly, taking her hand.

"Yeah I'm fine, not used to shouting people out." She gave a small smile.

"Well boys and girls, lets drink up and have some fun!" Reid stated, sitting down and taking a swig of his beer. Pogue took a swig and sat down, followed by Caleb.

Verity sat down and Tyler took his seat next to her and handed her the tall glass of drink.

"Thank you." She said, taking the glass and sipping the clear, sweet liquid through the straw. Tyler smiled and claimed his beer.

The group began chatting about school, homework and swim practice.

"You guys ready for the competition next week?" Pogue asked.

"What competition?" Verity asked, he ears having pricked up at the news no one had told her.

"There's a competition against us and Ipswich County High next Friday." Caleb told her.

"Followed by a victory party at my house!" Reid added enthusiastically.

Pogue and Reid hi-fived.

"Why am I suddenly the last to know vital information?" Verity teased the four boys at the table.

"Well you would have known earlier if you and Tyler hadn't gone rushing off to do "other things"" Reid said, using his fingers to make speech marks when he said other things, causing Tyler and to go a little red, and Verity to glare at him a little, wiping the smile from his face.

"How do you know it'll be a victory party?" She asked, teasing the blond boy.

"Because Spencer has a reputation for the best swim team, and Ipswich County doesn't!" Caleb smirked.

This caused the other three boys to laugh.

"So you mock the weaker group, how very sports man of you." Verity said, in a mock strict voice.

Every one smiled at that, and the group happily chatted away, drinking their drinks. Tyler and Caleb who were driving savoured their drinks, but Reid, Pogue and Verity all had rides home, so they took advantage of the freedom of not being a designated driver.

A familiar song began to play out of the jukebox.

"Me and the girls used to dance to this all the time!" Verity exclaimed. "Whose going to dance with me?" She asked, standing up and taking a hold of Tyler's hand, which looked to his friends for support.

Caleb shook his head and Pogue got up to go to the bar.

"I will!" Piped up Reid, who headed straight over to a toned red head wearing a rara skirt, knee high biker boots and a black one shoulder, oversized top.

Verity led Tyler towards where other people where dancing. She moved to the familiar sounds of Usher's Yeah! And all the good times she had with her girlfriends came flooding back to her, and she soon began to dance as if she were still with them, dipping to the floor and twirling around, moving her hips seductively, causing Tyler to feel pleased that he was the envy of all the guys in the room, and causing Aaron's jaw to drop to the floor, in turn, causing Keira to glare at the care free girl that was causing such a stir.

When the dance had finished, Verity wrapped her arms around Tyler's neck. She was drunk, but it didn't show.

"Hey baby blue eyes." She said, smiling.

"Hey gorgeous. Those were some serious moves you were throwing there." He replied, he had never seen anyone dance like that at Nicky's, and with so much confidence.

"Well, that's how it's done in New York!" She said, before kissing him deeply, a lot of people began to wolf whistle, it wasn't every day a shy boy managed to get his hands on a hot girlfriend.

"Maybe we should take this somewhere else?" Tyler said, when he managed to pull himself away from his desires.

"Maybe we should." Verity replied, then kissed him on the cheek, took his hand and walked off to their table to grab their coats.

"Hey, you guys headed home?" Caleb inquired. Reid was smiling, giving Tyler the thumbs up from the table opposite, where he had the cute red head on his lap.

Tyler rolled his eyes and turned to Caleb.

"Want to get Verity home before her parents, we didn't leave a note when we left." He said, it was the truth, none of them had thought to leave a note.

"You still want to swim tomorrow Verity?" Caleb asked, now he finally had her attention.

"Sure, that would be great. I do kinda miss the water." She smiled. "Thanks Caleb!"

"Not a problem. I'll pick you up around ten?"

"Great! See you then!"

"Night guys, get home safe!" Caleb instructed.

The pair gave Caleb a wave, then waved to Reid and the red, and then finally to Pogue, who was chatting up a curvaceous blond at the bar.

The pair put on their coats and left the warmth of the bar for the coolness outside.

When they got in the car, it was freezing cold, Tyler and Verity left the engine and car to heat up and to fill in the time until the car was warm, they had a heated make out session. Verity trailing little kisses to his ear lobe and back to his lips.

Tyler was enjoying the kiss and the feeling of Verity's hands on him, but they both suddenly stopped when someone rudely pounded the bonnet of the car.

Verity and Tyler parted suddenly.

"What the Hell?" Tyler asked no one in particular, getting out the car.

"What the Hell man?" He said loudly, annoyed.

"Verity got out the car, worried.

"I'm going to teach you a lesson Simms!" Aaron shouted in a drunken rage.

"What do you want Abbott?" Tyler asked.

"You humiliated me at practice, and you're girl humiliated me in the bar. Now I'm going to humiliate you." Aaron edge towards Tyler.

Verity didn't know why Tyler didn't just get in the car and lock the doors, but the way Aaron was; angry, competitive and drunk, locked car doors wouldn't have stopped the determined boy from dragging Tyler out of the car to beat him.

Verity ran to the bar door, shoving passed Keira on her way in. Verity quickly located Caleb and Pogue by the pool tables, she ran over and grabbed Caleb's arm.

"Verity what-" He began, but she cut him off.

"Aaron's seriously going to hurt Tyler!" She said, urgency in her voice.

"Where are they?" Pogue asked her.

"Outside in the parking lot!"

The two boys sprinted out quicker than Verity could blink ,she followed them as soon as she realised they were running gout the building to help Tyler.

By the time she had gotten there, Reid had followed her and Aaron had Tyler pushed up against the car and had a strong hold on the collar of his shirt and was yelling that Tyler had stolen his girl and that he was going to break the poor boys legs.

Caleb and Pogue pulled Aaron off Tyler who successfully took a swing at Aaron, who then lunged forward, taking Pogue and Caleb with him. Reid intersected and pulled Tyler back so the three of them were between a rabid Aaron and a pissed off Tyler.

Keira smirked from a few feet away, which agitated Verity, who wasn't usually a violent person.

Verity glared at Keira, now wasn't the time to start a cat fight.

"Keep it up Keira, I'll wipe that dirty little smirk from your face." Verity promised softly, so no one else but Keira noticed the threat.

By now Aaron's friends had come and dragged Aaron in to one of their cars and had to hold him in the car as they drove off to stop him getting out and going for Tyler again.

Verity walked over to Tyler and wrapped her arms around him, making Caleb and Pogue let go of him and take a step back.

"Let's go home." She said, kissing Tyler's cheek.

"Sure." He replied, feeling embarrassed that Aaron had very nearly knocked him out cold.

"Call you later bro." Pogue said, as Tyler got in to the truck. He nodded and muttered sure, speak later, and shut his door.

"Thanks." Verity said to the other boys as she got in to the car.

Tyler pulled away, leaving his three friends and Keira in the parking lot.


	16. Chapter 16 Making COnversation

Chapter Sixteen.

Tyler Drove fast, his hands wrapped around the steering wheel tightly as if it were Aaron's neck. He concentrated on the road, he was embarrassed he had been in a fight and Verity was there.

"Are you ok?" Verity asked, meekly.

"Sure. You?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah." Came her short reply.

A few more minutes of silence and they had arrived at her house. Her parent's car was in the courtyard.

"I'd ask you to come in but I think the whole Spanish Inquisition can wait." Verity said, looking at Tyler who just nodded.

"Still up for going to Caleb's tomorrow?" She said, trying to coax a decent answer from him.

"Sure. Want me to pick you up?" Tyler looked at her, trying his best to avoid her gaze, he was still so embarrassed.

"That would be great. I had a good time tonight." Verity said, placing her hand gently on his thigh.

"I'm sorry it ended the way it did."

"Yeah me too, Aaron's a real jerk. I wish he'd back off. One day he'll get what's coming. All the bad guys in the story do." Verity smiled and to her surprise, Tyler returned one.

"So my parents will be gone about eight tomorrow morning, want to come over early for breakfast?"

"Sure, say nine?"

"Great. I can't wait." Verity leaned over to Tyler to kiss him. He gave a small kiss but she held him to her and depend the moment.

The small goodnight kiss had turned in to a full on make out session which was causing the windows to steam up.

"You know if your car wasn't so huge, we could hide it and you could sneak in through my bedroom window." Verity said giving him a sly grin.

"I'm sure your parents would love that." Tyler smiled giving her another kiss.

"I guess we'll just have to wait until tomorrow. Breakfast in bed?" She winked asked.

Tyler was taken aback by her forwardness slightly.

"In bed?" He asked.

"Yup, thought we could have some croissants and maybe snuggle up and chat."

"Chat?"

"Or make out? Either way." She smiled, Tyler smile back. He liked this girl a lot and was ready to make their relationship serious.

"I'm game. I'll see you tomorrow."

They kissed again and Verity saw noticed that the front door had now opened and her father had stepped out on to the door step.

"I better go. See you tomorrow." She kissed Tyler on the cheek.

"Night." He called just as she go out the car and shut the door behind her.

Tyler watched as she went up to her front door and hugged her father and went inside and shut the door before he left.

Tonight was going to be a very long night.


	17. Chapter 17 Walking Further

Chapter Seventeen.

Verity had a quick chat with her parents about her day before she dashed downstairs and changed out of her clothes in to the pyjamas and took off her make up. She looked at her phone to see a message from Caleb asking if Tyler was ok, and a message from Tyler saying he had gotten home and was looking forward to spending the day with her tomorrow. She replied to Caleb first, telling him everything was fine and then to Tyler, telling him she had enjoyed her night.

Verity turned her alarm on for eight AM and got in to bed.

It wasn't long before she dreamt again, only this time she had gone down to the ruins and had followed the path she had found.

Tonight, she was wearing an old fashioned white silk petticoat and was barefooted again.

She followed the path which was lit by hundreds of white candles. Verity came to the end of the path and followed a candle which floated past her and in to the fog.

Verity was cold, she could see her breath every time she exhaled, but continued to follow the light through a field passed a large pond and diagonally across the field until she came to two old barns.

Walking through the open gateway and through the yard between the barns, Verity went further in to the fog and the deep, dark night.

Once through the yard Verity walked over to a small patch of dense forest. Right by the mouth of it there was an old, dilapidated house with a light coming from the door way.

Walking painlessly over the brambles and fallen branches, Verity made her way toward the house.

"Verity don't!" Caleb's voice echoed in her ears, pleading with her.

"Caleb?" She asked, confused. Looking around she could see no one. She was alone in the fog of the night.

"Verity, go home." His voice pleaded.

"Why? It's just a house."

"Please."

"I want to see the rest. You go back if you're scared." Verity said, continuing to walk forward to the door way. It looked unsafe, but she went in regardless.

As she stepped over the threshold, directly on her left were some stone stairs to a second storey. In front of her was a small, open room. She went forward and found the light was coming from the fireplace to her left under the stairs.

Verity crouched down in front of the fire. The room was bare, a large open window was behind her and not far from it was a massive hole which looked as if it had been blasted open.

"Hello? Is there any one here?" Verity called out as she stood up.

"There is no one out here in the dark but a wandering girl." A sly, male voice said quietly, Verity could not see the source of the voice, it sounded as it if were in the air, surrounding her.

"I don't understand." She said, confused.

"You're afraid now. You should come back in daylight hours." The voice said.

"But Caleb-"

"Do you always do what you're told?"

"No."

"Then come back in the light."

Verity felt warm, as if a sudden wave of sun were washing over her. The light got brighter, she was squinting now.

The then a noise filled her ears, a bleeping, getting louder and louder each passing second.

Verity awoke and sat bolt upright, sweat dripping from her skin. She looked around and switch her alarm off. The sun was shining brightly through the thin curtains directly on to her.

She got up and looked around, feeling disorientated. She felt nervous for some reason, the dream had been so vivid and felt so real.

Realising she had an hour before she would have company, Verity decided to take a shower and put her dream to the back of her mind.

Quickly showering and washing her hair and body Verity began to feel much better by the time she had gone back in to her bedroom.

Switching on her phone she began to dry her hair with the dryer. After a few minutes she heard her phone bleeped above the noise and turned the dryer off to look at the new message.

It was from Tyler, he had something to do before he met her so would be picking her up at ten instead. She text him back that it was ok, she had chores to do any way.

Remembering her dream, curiosity got the better of Verity. With a determined look on her face, she tied her still damp hair up in a ponytail and pulled out the clothes she had gone walking in before. Grabbing an old light weight rucksack, Verity packed in a small torch, her camera and phone and plugged her iPod in her ears, went upstairs and put on her coat and boots and headed down the track towards the fields and the old ruins.

Listening to her music took Verity's mind off the voice she had heard. Verity reasoned with herself that she was just going for a walk and it had nothing to do with the dream, she was going to see what was up the path she had found and now it was daylight it was ideal.

Verity found the path by the old ruins. She took more photos and followed the path. It seemed to wind on for miles, forest on her left and fields on her right. She could see animal tracks and took out one of her ear buds, if there were someone else around she wanted to be able to hear them and not be taken by surprise.

Soon enough, the end of the path came and Verity clambered over the fence to the field she had seen in her dream and followed her instinct and came to the same pond. She took another photograph and continued walking diagonally across the field.

Verity walked for what felt like more miles and she came across the bards. Only now the gate was closed.

Verity took more pictures and climbed the gate, it wasn't very high so she managed it with ease, landing in the yard between the bars, taking yet more pictures.

She walked nervously through the yard, feeling as if there were some one watching her from the barns.

Coming out of the yard buy climbing another gate, Verity followed the trees for a short distance of a few meters and came across the house. It was guarded by a rusty gate and fence in front of the thick trees.

Looking around, Verity saw no one and no signs about trespassing, so she took another photo and climbed the gate. As she neared the house she took more pictures, she needed proof that this was real. Heading in to the house, Verity took pictures of the stairs, and the fire place and the hole in the wall and climbed the first few steps and peeped upstairs.

Bracing herself to see something frightful, Verity was surprised to see nothing up there but rubble. Still, she took more pictures and when satisfied she stepped out of the house and looked over the pictures she had taken.

Verity decided to walk across the fields in front of the house to see where they would take her.

More miles and lots of green fields later, Verity finally came across an old and disused road. She walked down it, tripping every now and then and she stumbled downhill.

Eventually she came out on to the road to her house. verity gave a surprised smile and walked the way home. The music still in one ear, keeping her motivated.

Verity was in her courtyard now, and saw Tyler's huge truck. He was sat on her door step looking lost in thought.

Verity smiled and walked up to the gate, the sound if it opening stirring Tyler form his thoughts.

"Hi! How long have you been waiting?" Verity asked, switching off her iPod.

"A half hour. where were you? I called a ton of times." Tyler stood up and gave her a hug, he looked worried.

"I'm sorry, I was out walking, and I didn't hear my phone. But you have to see these pictures I took. They're totally spooky!" Verity let them both in to the house, leaving her muddy boots on the door step she turned the kettle on.

"Here." She said, handing Tyler the camera. "Check these out. I'll just go change." Verity kissed Tyler's cheek and ran down the stairs to get changed.

Tyler looked through the various pictures of Verity in new York with her old friends and parties and at school, watching basketball games and on holiday on yachts, smiling at each one.

The he came to the pictures Verity had taken over the last few days on her walks. The first set of ruins, and the path and the barns, then the house, and inside the house.

Tyler frowned at the pictures, they were spooky, and the thought of Verity out there alone made him shudder.

"What do you think?" Verity's chirpy voice startled him. He turned to see her in black skinny jeans, flat red pumps and a red V-neck shirt, her hair down in loose waves from being left damp.

"They're spooky alright. Especially the ones of you at the wheel of a boat." Tyler joked. Verity smiled and went up to him, taking the camera from his hands and placing it on the table, then wrapping her arms around him.

"You know, we don't have to go anywhere, we could stay here. We'll have the house to ourselves until tonight." Verity smiled and kissed him.

"Sounds good." Tyler said, kissing her back.


	18. Chapter 18 Driving A Tank

Chapter Eighteen.

"So what do you want to do?" Verity asked.

"I can think of a few things, like eat for one!" Tyler teased.

"I'm not the best cook, but I can make toast?"

Tyler smiled at Verity's confession and kissed the tip of her nose.

"We could go in to town? I doubt you ate yet and I'm pretty hungry."

Just then Verity's stomach rumbled loudly causing her to blush slightly.

"I guess I'll go grab my coat then." She said with a smile.

"Guess so." Tyler let go of her and watched as she walked through the living room and down the stairs.

A few minutes later, Verity had come up the stairs in a knee length red woollen coat, black cotton scarf and black knee high wedge heel ankle boots with a small black bag. Tyler noticed she was wearing lip gloss and had brushed her hair again.

"Red suits you. You should wear it more." Tyler told her.

"Thank you. Are you ready to go?" She responded.

"Sure. Wanna drive?"

"Seriously?"

"Sure, you seem trustworthy enough. One condition though."

"And that would be...?"

"I'll tell you later."

"Not fair, tell me now!"

"Nope! Here." Tyler tossed her the keys and opened her front door and motioned for her to walk out first. She smiled and gave him a kiss as she walked past and picked up her own keys.

Tyler shut the door and filled Verity down to his car and watched her smile as she opened the door and climbed, with difficulty, in to the driver's seat. Tyler got in and smiled at the sight of her adjusting the seat so she could reach the pedals.

"I can't believe you're letting me drive this thing!" She exclaimed, hoping he wouldn't change his mind.

"Just to double check, you do have a licence right?"

"Of course! I love to drive, it's just mom and dad can't afford to get me a car."

Tyler gave a sympathetic smile and Verity startled a little as the engine roared to life.

"I hope you're going to help me park this tank!" She joked.

"Hey it's a Hummer not a tank!" Tyler protested. "Besides Reid has very poor special awareness and even he can park it!"

"How come Reid and you aren't joined at the hip today then?" Verity said, as she concentrated on maundering the hummer out of her drive way and down the lane before pulling out on the main road.

"He was still sleeping when I left."

"Caleb asked me how you were last night. Everyone was really shocked when you knocked that sleaze ball out!"

"I didn't mean to shock any one. I've had enough of the way he itemizes girls. You weren't scared though, right?"

Tyler felt guilty that Verity had witnessed his outburst and was hoping it would soon be forgotten.

"Not at all. I just wish I had the strength to do it! Thank you for sticking up for me by the way."

"I'll always stick up for you Verity. You're a good person and deserve to be treated with respect. Anyway, we're nearly in town, you want to pull over and let me park?"

"No way! I'm determined to park, even if it takes an hour!"

Twenty minutes later, Verity was still no closer to getting the large vehicle in to the two white lines of the parking bay. Tyler practically had to pull her out the driver's seat so he could park safely while a defeated Verity stood on the side walk and watched in dismay as Tyler parked perfectly within seconds. She crossed her arms and pretended to sulk as Tyler locked the car and handed over her bag.

"And that's how it's done!" He smirked putting his arm around her, holding tighter as she pretended to protest.

"Sure it is, but I bet you can't pull of wearing red like I can!" She joked, determined to be better at something than he was.

"True, if I put on that coat there's no way I would look as good as you." He joked back.

Verity kissed his cheek and they walked in to the small diner hand in hand and walked over to a small table with two chairs near the window. The both took off their coats and sat down, holding hands across the table.

"Are you still on for going up to Caleb's later?" Tyler asked after a waitress had handed them a menu each.

"Sure, do I need my swim kit? Because I don't think I really want to take a swimming lesson with you watching."

"Why not? I'm sure you're a great swimmer. Weren't you on sort of team a while back?"

"Yeah but I don't enjoy it as much as I used to. Water kinda freaks me out a bit now."

"If you don't want to then you don't have to. We could take some movies up instead. Plus I know Caleb will want to order a pizza, I think that he thinks Pizza is one of the five food groups!" they both laughed.

"So what do you want to eat?" Tyler asked her.

"What do you want? I'm still not sure." She replied.

"I was thinking of hot chocolate and waffles."

"Sounds good, I think I'll go for the same. You have a good choice."

The waitress came over and Tyler ordered for them, Verity's phone sounded that he had a text message.

It was a text message from Pogue, he wanted to know how she was after the previous night's events. She quickly replied she was fine and that she was with Tyler. He didn't send a reply.

Verity began to wonder what would have happened if Pogue had been the one to pick her up to go to Nicky's, if it had been him she was sat here with now and not Tyler.

"Earth to Verity?" Tyler nudged her again, bringing her out of her trance.

"Sorry, I was a million miles away!" She said, noticing food had been put in front of her.

"Are you okay?" Tyler asked her.

"Yeah I'm fine. Just a little hungry, low blood sugar levels make me day dream."

"You're sure you're ok though?" Tyler had a concerned look on his face.

"Sure, I'll be fine after a huge sugar bomb!" She joked, taking a bit of the waffles and syrup.

"It's delicious, try some." She urged Tyler to eat, so they could change the conversation.

They ate in silence until the waffles were gone from their plates and were half way through their hot chocolates.

Tyler took Verity's hand in his from across the table and they both smiled.

"Feeling better?" He asked sweetly.

"Much." She smiled back.

"Do you want to go for a walk around town?" Tyler suggested.

"Sure, let me just visit the bathroom fist." Verity excused herself from the table and went to freshen up. She looked at her phone quickly, no messages from Pogue, a few from her friend back in New York, wanting cheerleading advice, Verity quickly text her back with a promise of a long e-mail later that night and returned back to the table, noticing Tyler putting is wallet away and holding her coat.

He helped her slip it on and put his hand in hers, they smiled and walked out together, chatting about nothing in particular as they walked around the small town that was now Verity's home.


	19. Chapter 19 Indiscretions in the Pool

Chapter Nineteen.

Verity got home a few hours later, not allowing herself to invite Tyler in, she said she had urgent chores to do before going to Caleb's. Tyler insisted on picking her up later and taking her, he even persuaded her to take her swimming costume too.

She went straight to her room and sent her friend the long promised e-mail. She told her friend Lucy how she had been dating Tyler for a short time even though she had only been as school for a week, how he let her drive his huge car and how she lied about having her licence and even though she had no knowledge of driving she managed to get the their destination in one piece. She to her friend all about how she had a basketball smack down with Spencer's head cheerleader and how she kissed Pogue. She sent the e-mail and went to shower, washing and shaving and then scrubbing her face. She seemed to spend so much time in the shower, but it was the only place she felt sane. She had always enjoyed long hot showers at home, so why should here be any different?

She packed her brown and blue flower print bikini shorts and halter bra with her towel and brush an put her hair up in a top knot and put on black skinny jeans, lilac cashmere long sleeve top and tucked her jeans in to grey ankle boots and wrapped up in a large black cable knit cardigan and made her way up to the living room to wait for Tyler. Instead of silence she could hear knocking coming from her room, she went down to investigate, wondering if it was her imagination, but it wasn't.

The knocking was coming from the sealed cupboard under the stairs, it sounded loud and desperate. Verity decided it was her imagination and ran up the stairs frightened.

She put on the TV for some company and looked at the time, Tyler wouldn't be here for a while, so she turned on her father's desktop computer and logged on. She started up the internet at searched for local history and history on the Pope estate. Reams and reams of old history came up, she searched for a map, finding plenty, but none of them showed the old ruins. She logged on to the National Parks website, looking for the old advert her parents responded to, but it had disappeared. She looked for information on the estate and the cottage she was living in now on the site, but found nothing of the old path she had walked. She felt freaked out.

And then to add to her anxious state, someone knocked at the front door loudly, causing her to jump and turn pale. It took a few more minutes of knocking before she composed herself and realised it would be someone at the front door. She pulled herself together and went to answer the door.

It was Tyler, coming to pick her up to take her to Caleb's.

"Are you ok? You look like you've seen a ghost. I was knocking for ever." Tyler looked concerned.

"I'm fine, I was listening to my iPod. Probably too loudly again. I'll grab my bag and we can go if you like?" She responded quickly, trying to hide the panic in her voice.

"Sure, Reid's in the car, he bagged the front seat, sorry." Tyler said as he waited for her to grab her bag from the next room.

"Not a problem. As long as you cars warmer than my house!" Verity joked and gave Tyler a quick kiss on the lips.

She locked up her house and walked down the steps to the hummer and opened the door but was stopped by Tyler who pulled her to face him.

"You sure you're ok?" He wanted to know, he was so worried about her.

"I'm fine, just cold." She kissed him again, only this time deeper, until they were interrupted by a loud cough from Reid.

"Some of us would like to get to their destination on time people!" Reid said from the front passenger seat of the car, causing Verity to blush and Tyler to smile slightly. He let Verity get in and went over to the passenger side and punched Reid on the arm and commented how he could be so rude sometimes and needed to learn manners, Reid answered back about Tyler not having manners by kissing in public, Verity listened to the pair as they play argued all the way to Caleb's house.

They all got out the car and Tyler held Verity's hand as they walked to Caleb's front door and let themselves in. Verity was immediately in awe of the huge mansion house that was so grand and imposing to her. This was nothing compared to her old apartment.

She looked around in amazement at the antiques and the way the house had been decorated with old paintings and carved wood panels, she had to be steered in to the kitchen by Tyler.

"Warm up in here and help yourself to a drink, I'm going to find Caleb. Won't be long." Tyler kissed her check and left. Verity found herself alone in the large kitchen. She enjoyed the warmth and light and soon felt a pair of hands on her shoulders and felt a breath on her neck.


	20. Chapter 20 Dealing With It

Verity jumped and inhaled a loud breath as she turned around to face certain impending doom.

She felt relief wash over as she realised who it was.

"Hey V, any one would think a serial killer had sunk up on you!" Pogue joked as he smirked at the shocked girl in front of him.

"You scared the Hell out of me Pogue Parry! I hope you're going to stop smirking long enough to give me an apology!" Verity huffed at him.

"I'm sorry, I guess I was psyched to see you, I think you've been avoiding me since-" He was cut off.

"I've not been avoiding you. I've been busy."

"Sure, well any way every one's playing foosball, Caleb said you two were going to have a session in the pool but Reid's snagged him for their game, said I'd swim with you while you waited." He explained.

"I don't want to put you out or make you miss a game." Verity answered.

"Look, if you want to avoid me that's fine."

"I never said I was avoiding you." She argued with him.

"That's good. Let's go then." Pogue said, taking her bag from her and grasping her hand and walking towards a small door on the other side of the kitchen and down a set of stairs in to a large glass conservatory which had an oval shaped pool in the middle, surrounded by comfy looking deck chairs and a Jacuzzi to one side of the pool.

Pogue led her to a small shower room and gave her back her bag.

"See you in there." He said to her, she nodded in agreement and locked the door behind him after he left.

Verity mentally gave herself a stern talking to. Pogue was just being friendly, offering to keep her company while she waited her dreaded session with Caleb. Verity hoped Pogue would get in the water with her and not sit on the side an leave her to face her discomfort alone.

Verity took her clothes off and replaced them with her bikini using shaking hands, she was nervous, mainly because of the water, but partly because of Pogue. She shoved all the thoughts to the back of her mind and concentrated on wrapping the towel around herself and walking out the pool. She was glad to see Pogue was waiting in the water for her. She smiled weakly and removed her towel. Pogue suddenly stopped swimming at gazed at her.

She gazed at him back.

The water on his muscular and tones body made her weak at the knees. She looked away and gripped on to the hand rail and walked down the slope in to the water. When the water got to her waist she began to feel fear gripping her tightly, knotting and churning her stomach. Her breath became slightly laboured.

Pogue noticed this and walked close to her, took her hands from the rail and held them in his, he stood close to her, so close he felt her skin on his, dry and smooth.

He slowly and gently pulled her forwards towards to deeper water. They had reached the centre of the pool, the water came up to below his shoulders and above hers.

"This is as deep as it gets. You'll be ok." He told her, bringing her out of her fearful trance.

Verity smiled, the relief could be seen on her face.

"I guess it isn't so bad. Thank you." She said.

"Not a problem."

Pogue loosened his grip on her hands and began to move away but she gripped tight, keeping him in arms reach.

"Not yet." She told him. He nodded and went closer to her again. He felt her tremor so wrapped his arms around her tightly, so she would know he was there.

"You don't have to be scared when I'm here. I won't let anything happen to you." His voice soothed her and she looked up and smiled.

"Thank you. You didn't have to do this, you could be kicking ass right now, but you're stuck with me." She said.

"I'd rather be here with you." He told her.

They looked at each other, capturing each other's gaze.

"I haven't been avoiding you, I've been avoiding this." Verity told him.

"I know." He said.

"Does this make us bad?" She asked.

He wanted to tell her no it didn't, that this was right and they stay together, but the words wouldn't come out, so he kissed her, hoping that would tell her what words had failed to.

Verity wrapped an arm around his muscular waist and the other around his neck, allowing her hand to wander up in to his hair, pulling him closer. Pogue held her tight, his arms around her waist and up her back, having no intention of letting her go.

They kissed for what seemed like hours, Pogue pushing her towards the edge of the pool, pinning her against the hard wall, one hand keeping her against it, the other sliding down her hip and to her thigh and back up to her hip.

He kissed down her neck, across her shoulder and down her chest and back up to her lips, a small moan of pleasure escaped her lips and he pushed himself further in to her. She tugged on his hair slightly causing him to groan.

The kiss slowed and they looked at each other, he kissed her cheeks, forehead and nose before planting a small kiss on her lips.

She leaned her head on his shoulder, enjoying the embrace for a few minutes more. Pogue could feel her shivering, but it was from pleasure, not the cold.

"You're shivering, maybe we should get out." Pogue suggested.

Verity wanted to stay here in arms for ever, but she knew what they had done was wrong and she shouldn't be there.

Verity took a deep breath and nodded. Pogue took her hand and lead her out of the pool. When they were out he picked up the towel she had bought with her and wrapped it around her and walked her to the door of the shower room. He paused for a moment then cupped her face and kissed her again, this time slowly but still deep and full of feeling. After a while he pulled away and left Verity to change alone.

Pogue walked to the other shower room and changed too, wishing he knew what to do. He had kissed his friend's girlfriend. His brother's girlfriend. It was wrong, but he wanted it so much, he wanted her. Not because Kate wasn't here, he had told her he couldn't take her cheating anymore and had ended it when she rang him for the first time since she had left. He wanted Verity because she was so right for him, she was beautiful and delicate and full of zest. She was perfect. But the feeling he had in his stomach was not. He was going to have to stay away from Verity or ask her to come clean to Tyler. He wouldn't forgive easily but neither of them could keep this secret. Could they?


	21. Chapter 21 He Saw Everything

A/N I am SO SORRY for being away for so long guys! Please don't hate me! Any way, I read over what I wrote so far and I'm hoping this chapter will be a little present for my friendly readers who don't want to kill me for being away for so long! I'm a little rusty so please be nice and review ")  
As always I own nothing you recognise, only Verity and her house (which is no longer my house,  
sad days). Also, I'm writing alot of this from how Tyler would feel, if you're like me and have beeen cheatred on, you'll probably relate to how he feels quite a bit. Also, I mention a few video games, I have no knowledge wht so ever about video games, so if I get it wrong, please over look it! Sorry if it is a little short!

Chapter 21.

As Verity changed, re-playing the actions of the pool over again in her mind she wondered what it all meant. Pouge had kissed her at the hospital before she began to get involved with Tyler. The she began to date Tyler and went on to kiss Pouge. She was Tyler's girlfriend, she shouldn't be kissing any one else. Yes she had little crush on Pouge, the bad boy biker, but she'd simply had enough of bad boys. Which is why she chose Tyler.

Except Pouge wasn't really bad boy, he was caring and protective. He seemed to bounce from point A to point B and had no real future prospects or goals, but Verity was willing to bet he had a hidden plan up his sleeve.

While Pogue changed, he had one thing running through his head; why did he have to hurt Tyler to get what he wanted?  
He made amove on Verity first, so he should be the one she's dating, so there should be no reason for either of them to feel guilty. Tyler was in way over his head with this girl. At the same time, he too felt guilty about the kiss and how heated things had become in the pool.

But, neither Verity or Pogue realised that Tyler had seen the kiss. He was on his way to join his girlfriend and had seen the way his friend had taken her hads and guinded her deeper on to the pool, had seen the kiss and how his hands had wrapped around her waist, and how her hards and wrapped around him and wokred their way in to his har. How his friend and directed his girlfriend to the side of pool and pushed himself in to her. Yes, Tyler had seen it all. He saw the kiss break up and Verity and Pogue, his girlfriend and friend, go their seaperate ways to the small, singular changing cubiles.

To Tyler, watcing the scene unfiold and play out, felt like a kick to the stomach, a knife to the heart nd slap in the throat all at once. He began to shake and sweat, feel angery and nauseaus at the same time. His adernaline had kicked in and he didn't know whether he was in fight or flight mode. All he wanted to make it all dissapear.

He walked away as silently as he had entered. Would it be better to know and pretend it hadn't happened or better not to know at all? Could he forginve? Could he even forget? As much as he wanted to, could he do either? Or both?

Tyler walked back in the the room where he has left his other two friends, his two other brothers, fighting over a game.

"Tyler! Tell Caleb he's never going to beat me at Gran Theft Auto!" Reid cried out, failing epically at fooseball.  
"Dream on Garwin! We all know you have no clue when it comes to cars!" Caleb replied, continuing to beat his friend.

Tyler just nodded, barely acknowedging them as he made his way to find alcohol. Beer would not quite do today, he needed harder substance. He needed vodka, or tequila. Anything to get his mind away from what he saw. If he could forget, then it would be a good thing.

Sensing something wasn't right, Caleb and Reid paused their game, looked at eachother and followed the youngest member of their frienship group and their brotherhood.

Tyler poured himself a whiskey and knocked it back in one, then he poured another. About to knock that back too, Reid interrupted.  
"Hey man, what's up?" The blonde asked.  
"Nothing, Why would any thing be up?" Tyler asked in sulky way, placing his glass down and turning away from his two concerned friends and placing his hands on the kitchen counter and loking down and the amber filled glass.  
"You're not one drink. Especially so ealry on in the day" Caleb said, placing a hand ont he younger boys back.  
Tyler didn't move, he didn't talk, he didn't think. He just was.

After a few moments of silence he decided that he couldn't here here when Pogue and Verity surfaced.

"I need to run a few errands for my mom. Do you guys want any thing while I'm out?" Tyler asked, turning to face his friends.

Caleb and Reid looked at eachother, and shrugged. Reid didn't know what to say. Something was wrong and he knew it, even if Tyler didn't want to admit it.

Caleb, seeing Reid#s hesitation, took control.

"We could do with some chips and dips, maybe a couple of pizza's for later. But if you're going to be in a hurry we can always order in later?" Caleb said, looking sympathetically at Tyler.

"Whatever, let me know what flavours you want. I'm heading out." Tyler said, shrugging and walking out of the kitchen and towards the front door.

Meanwhile downstairs, Verity raced to get dried and back in to her clothes. The reality of her actions had truly hit her now. She needed to get away fronm Pogue and pretend that nothing had happened. She liked Tyler, she was with Tyler, so she should go upstairs and be with Tyler. She got changed and left her towel and bikini in the small cubicle and ran up the stairs, tying her hair in to a braid as she went.  
She burst through the door and to the kitchen just as Tyler closed the front door.


	22. Tyler's Chapter

A/N So what did you think of my first chapter back after three years? For me it was daunting writting again, but after the first few lines it was as if nothing had changed and I had never been away!  
LIFE UPDATE! KimBraindead (my first reader and reviwer) FINALLY met last summer, and I have a little surprise up my sleeve for her as she is such a good reader, reviwer and friend and I love her to peices!

Still own nothing Covenant !  
So Tyler saw eberything that happened in the pool! This chaoter follows Tyler and what he thinks and feels about the situation. The next will follow Verity and the chapter after that will follow Pogue.

Chapter 22.

Tyler got in his truck, slamed it on to gear and drove. He didn't know where he was driving to, he just knew he was driving.  
At first, he tried to concentrage on changing gears, breaking when needed and speeding up when the road was clear to do so.  
He concentrated on breathing, in and out, in and out. Never stopping and never throwing up.

Forward he went. Not knowing where he was going, not caring, just going forward.

He felt bruised, like he really had been kicked in the gut, like he really had been slapped in the throat. He had been winded and wounded.  
And what was worse, was that he sttod up for her. He stood up for Verity.

He punched Aaron Abbot in the face stickin gup for that girl. Aaron Abbot who was going to be very pissed and agressive when he finally got his hands on Tyler. Aaron Abbot who hated him any way.

Aaron Abbot was know for being a serial cheat, maybe he and Verity would be good together?

Tyler shook his head in disguist at that though. A part of him still beleived Verity was too good for Aaron, another beleived that Verity was too good for Tyler, and Pogue was better off with her. He knew how to treat a girl.  
But Pogue was still with Kate. Wasn't he?

Maybe Tyler had imagined the whole thing? Or maybe there was nothing to it? Maybe after he left the shadowed area where he was standing, Verity had slapped Pogue for being so forward?  
Maybe Tyler had been stood in such a shadowed place, he didn't see the whole thing?  
Maybe Verity tried to push Pogue away? Maybe Pogue tried to push Verity away?  
Who had really come on to who?

As Tyler drove, he suddenly slammed on the brakes, and came to realise something else;  
what if that kiss was a mutual decision? It was pretty steamy, and no one pulled away immediatly.

With traffic behind him, sounding horns like there was no tomorrow, Tyler began to manuver the tank like automobile to a lay by.

Was he stupid enough to kid himself that that the kiss was nothing?

No, he wasn't. That kiss WAS something, and he needed to know if his new (and first)  
relationship was actually worth carrying on with. He didn't want to be hurt, he didn't want to hurt another person either, and he didn't want to end up like Reid; having a reputation as a party boy and a ladies man.

Tyler breathed deeply for a few moments and turned the car around and headed back to town. He'd get Caleb's chips, dips and pizzas. The he would drive back up to the house and take Verity to one side and tell her that he saw. He wouldn't get mad, he wouldn't cry and he wouldn't stop talking to either her or Pogue. He would be the adult in this tacky, teenage situation. He would be Tyler, only more grown up .


	23. Verity's Chapter

A/N How did you like chapter 22? I want people who don't know what it's like to be cheated on to know, because it really does hurt, and I think the more knowledge you have the better a writter you become. Any way, this is Verity's chapter, so onwards and upwards.  
I still own nothing Covenant related, although a Tyler would be nice right about now =)  
I watched Gosspi Girl last night for the first time in over a year! Wow Chace Crawford is yummy! But so it Taylor Kitsch, so who shall I choose for Verity? Chase or Pogue? Help!

Chapter 23.

It all happened in slow motion. Pogue holding her hands, the start of THAT kiss. His hands around her waist. Her hands in his hair.

Him pushing her to the edge of the pool and pressing up against her. Her desire to wrap her legs around him (she didn't act on it, but she had wanted to).The fact that her boyfriend was in the upstairs room, chilling with his other friends.

As Pogue leaned in closer, she could sense he was going to kiss her again. And she wanted him to.

She reasoned with her self that if Tyler wanted her, really wanted her, he would be the one in the pool with her. But he wasn't, it was Pogue.

Pogue, who kissed her when she had face planted the basket ball court and not cared she had a nasty bruise forming on her face, Pogue who hadn't care about the swelling that had made itself at home on her face a bit too quickly for comfort.

Verity was confused. What was she doing?

Was she prepared to embark on this journey? A journey of cheating, lies and deception?  
A journey she heard her father talk about with regards to his work colleagues?  
Was she ready to become Verity Hanes;cheating teenage girl?

As she hurried to dry and change, she realsied that she wasn't ready to be THAT girl.

She was not ready to be a cheat. She was scared, but she knew what she wanted; a guy who had the ability to provide for her, be there for her through thcik and thin, a guy who could protect her and whisk her off her feet. A guy who could treat her right.

She just wasnt sure who that guy was.


	24. Pogue's Chapter

**Chapter 24.**

Pogue dried himself off and changed in to his usual jeans and t-shirt. He took his time towel drying his hair and putting his swim kit away in its usual bag.

He had just kissed his best friend's girlfriend! In his other best friend's house! With his best friends upstairs, not suspecting a thing! What the Hell was he doing?

Pogue sat down on the small built in bench of the changing cubicle. What was he going to do?

Should he catch Verity as she comes out of her cubicle and talk? Could he trust himself to just talk?

A million questions ran through his mind; did he really feel anything towards Verity? Did Verity feel anything towards him? What about Tyler? Could either of them tell him and hope things wouldn't get awkward? What about Kate?

Well, what about Kate? When Pogue had called her, she seemed distant. Like she didn't really want to talk to him at all.

He told her it was okay to be angry and upset, and she could talk to him. He wanted to know when she was coming back. She wouldn't (or wouldn't) tell him. She said she had to go, had things to do. Kate hung up. She never said she would call him later, never said she loved him, never said good bye. The line just went dead.

Kate had cheated on him and treated him pretty badly. Everyone knew it. But he would forgive her and try his hardest to get things back to normal, but it would happen all over again a few weeks or months later. So Pogue began to look around too, even flirted a little. But he never acted on the excitement. Not until he kissed Verity after she took a basketball to the face.

He knew how it felt to get cheated on, he didn't want that for Tyler. He didn't want to feel that he was stealing a girl from his friend, but at the same time, he wanted Verity for himself. But was he really prepared to do anything to get her?

While Pogue was arguing about what he could say to Verity, he heard the door to her cubicle open and close, and heard her small feet scurry her away to the door and up the stairs away from him. Away from the pool and their heated kiss.

Pogue sighed. Whatever he was going to say or do, he had to think of it fast before it was too late. Verity had run off, there was no way to catch up with her and take her to one side now, not when she would be in Tyler's site at all times from now on.

Sighing, Pogue gathered his thoughts and made his way slowly up the stairs to join his friends.

A text conversation wouldn't get him that far, a real conversation wasn't likely.

I'm screwed, he thought to himself.


	25. Uncomfortable Silences and Rain

**Chapter 25.**

Verity rushed on to the kitchen, seeing Caleb and Reid and hearing the large, old oak front

door slam, she soon realised Tyler was nowhere to be found.

"Hey, where's Tyler?" She asked sheepishly, and in vain.

"Just gone to run a few errands." Caleb began, walking closer to the girl. "Reid's just

going to switch on the TV and find a movie. Want to help me get a few drinks together?"

Reid, knowing it was a hint to leave, nodded and walked towards the door behind Verity."

"What movie Verity? Action, horror or comedy?" Reid asked, pausing at the door.

"Um, comedy?" The girl asked, turning to look at him.

"Sure. See you guys in a few." Reid said, before walking off in search of a movie.

Verity turned to Caleb, noticing the boy was now leaning against a kitchen counter.

"What's up Verity?" Caleb asked.

"What do you mean?" Verity said, walking next to Caleb, also leaning against the counter.

"I mean; what's up? Tyler went down to the pool to see you guys and then he storms out

claiming he had family errands." Caleb was concerned about Tyler, his friend of 17 years,

but also about Verity.

"He was at the pool?!" Verity said panicked, standing straight, no longer leaning against

the counter.

"Yeah, you didn't see him?" Caleb picked up on her sudden and tense body language and stood

straight too.

"No! I didn't see him! What did he say?" Verity began to feel her temperature rise as her panic started to set in. She felt a little dizzy and sick, and need of some fresh air.

"Nothing, he had to run some errands. He's picking up food on his way back. Are you okay?" Caleb was picking up the fact that something was wrong with the situation that was in front of him.

"Yeah I'm fine. Do you know when he'll be back?"

"Not sure. Look, Tyler seemed off to me. Kinda upset I guess. What's happened? Did you two fight?"

"No. It's nothing."

Pogue came in to the kitchen and startled the pair who were in front of him.

"Hey, what's up?" Caleb said, initiating Pogue in to conversation.

"Nothing man, just looking for Verity. Some things we need to go over for maths class next week." Pogue cringed on the inside, knowing he was lying to his oldest and closest friend as well as himself.

"Sure, well here she is! I'm going to set up the TV for the movie. Don't be long okay, you know how Reid gets when he's left waiting to watch a movie." Caleb joked, taking Pogue's interruption as his cue to leave, he walked to the other side of the room and took one last look at Pogue and Verity before he walked out of the kitchen.

"Look, Verity-" Pogue began before he was cut off by the girl standing in front of him.

"Stop. We don't have to talk about it." She told him, hoping he would sense to leave her, and the subject of conversation, alone.

"No! We **need** to talk about it. It was wrong. And I don't know what to do."

"What to do?! We leave it as a mistake and forget about it!" Verity gasped, turning away from Pogue and placing her hands on the counter in front of her and examining the work surface-anything to avoid his gaze.

"Is that what it was? A mistake?" Pogue walked over to Verity and placed a hand on the small of her back, leaning close to her, but not quite touching her.

"It has to be." She answered, not sure if she was being honest or not.

"Is that how you feel?"

"I don't know how I feel Pogue."

"I think you're scared." He wanted her to turn around so he could see her face, read her eyes.

"I'm confused."

"I know you are. I am too. Verity, please, just turn around and look at me."

Verity turned around slowly, really not wanting to look him the eye and to be more confused than she already was.

"Pogue-" She began to say, but he placed a finger to her lips to silence her.

"**Was** is a mistake though? The kiss after you were hurt wasn't a mistake. You can't tell me you don't feel anything." He urged her to say something.

"I don't **know **what I feel!" She said, her voice raised to a slight shout.

"What's going on here?" Tyler's voiced entered the room, causing both Pogue and Verity to jump and turn to face the doorway where the other boy was standing.

Pogue moved a short distance away from Verity. Verity was hesitant about going over to Tyler, she wanted to be in his embrace so much and for him to tell her everything was going to be okay.

"Tyler-" Pogue began, but Tyler shook his head at his friend and walked over to the pair. He was standing within arms reach of them both. He wanted to shout, and to hit, but he also wanted to not be in this situation. He also wanted everything to be how it was an hour ago. To be how it was before he decided to go see how Verity was doing being back in the water.

"Verity, you okay?" Tyler asked. She nodded slowly, not sure if she trusted herself to look at her boyfriend or even to open her mouth to speak.

"I need to go pick up the pizzas, wondered if you wanted to come for a ride?" Tyler said, wanting her to say yes. He felt like he couldn't be mad at either of them, he felt hurt by them both, but he just couldn't feel mad. It wasn't natural to him to feel anything like that toward another human being.

"Sure. I'd like that." Verity looked up at Tyler and gave a weak sort of smile. He held out his hand to her.

"Let's go then."

Verity took Tyler's hand, Tyler looked over at Pogue.

"Won't be long. See you in a half hour." Tyler walked Verity out of the Danvers' building without waiting for a reply from his friend.

It was a quite walk from the door of the vast house to the door of the vast car. But they arrived, and Tyler continued to be the well to-do gentleman his parents bought him up to be, and opened the passenger door for Verity.

"Thank you." She said, hoping in to her designated seat. Tyler shut the door and made his way over to the driver's side of the car. Once he was in and buckled up, he started the engine. The roar of the large vehicle coming to life seemed deafening in the silence.

Tyler turned the truck around and drove down the vast drive way and out of the heavy, old iron gates and on to the road that headed toward the New England town.

The pair rode in silence for twenty minutes, neither knowing what to say. Verity wanted to ask Tyler if he was okay, but she wasn't sure how to make her words come out.

Finally Tyler broke the silence.

"I saw you. In the pool." He wanted to say more, but couldn't bring himself to.

"Tyler-" Verity began.

"Why?" He asked.

"I don't know." Verity looked at her shoes, ashamed, tears pooling in her eyes.

"He's my friend." Tyler didn't know if he was making a statement or asking a question.

"I'm sorry Tyler." She said quietly, her voice threatening to break any moment.

"I'm driving you home." He said just as quietly, unsure of what her was doing, what he was thinking and what would happen next.

"Sure. If that's what you want."

"I don't know what I want." He slowed down as he came to the entrance of the road to her house.

"I can walk from here." Verity said, unclipping her seatbelt.

Tyler simply nodded and stopped the car. "I'll get your bag and stuff to you later." His voice hoarse.

"Thanks." She said and got out, too afraid to give him one last look as she closed the door. Tyler drive off quickly, leaving Verity alone as the rain began to pour down, she let her tears escape and run down her face with the water.


	26. Sweet Dreams Are Made of This

**A/NB I own NOTHING Covenant related, just Verity and the plot. I no longer own her house either, we moved out of that. I have a lot of photos of the ruins I found which inspired this story, so if any one wants to see them let me know and I'll maybe make a Tumblr account for them.**

**I'm loving the reviews I've been getting! I'm stuck on whether Verity should be with Tyler or Pogue so your input is greatly appreciated! I'm glad you've been enjoying it! If you like The Vampire Diaries I have a story called Eternal Promises which has another version of Verity in it AND Pogue! **

**Chapter 26.**

Verity walked up to her front door as the rain poured, the door was locked. Remembering she had left her bag at Caleb's house she leant her fore head against the door and cried.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" She called out, banging her head against the door with each word.She breathed out deeply and though of a way she could break in to the house to gain warmth, but she knew the house was like a fortress; impossible to get in to without a key. Plus, her parents would kill her is she broke a window to get in. Verity felt lost, and wet. There was no where she could go now. She had lost her new friends through her stupidity, her old friends were in New York and would probably be pissed that she had forgotten them and not been in contact as much as she promised them she would be. Verity had no one to turn to, but she did have a place she could go; the ruins she found. She could o to the ruins over in the field and follow the path to the abandoned and dilapidated old house she had found that morning.

Verity pushed herself away from her front door and headed down the stairs and towards the field at the end of the road. She climbed the gate and ran in to the field which was becoming vastly muddy and began to resemble a swamp. Verity ran as fast as her booted feet would let her, shivering from the cold.

Verity ran and ran and ran, she ran up the hill and through the fallen ruins to the path which was sheltered by a tunnel of trees Verity had never really noticed before. The rain didn't seem to touch her now she had gotten here, the trees were sheltering her ad best as they could while their leave fell with at Autumn chill. Verity could smell the rain and leaves, she could smell the cold, but she didn't stop and walk now she was under shelter; she carried on running. Verity did not run out of fear but ran to leave her problems behind.

As the toe of Verity's ankle boot came in to contact with a large stone she tripped, sending herself falling to the ground, sending the air right out of her body. She clambered back up to her feet immediately, ignoring the fact her clothes were muddy, her hands were grazed and bleeding and the clothing covering her legs were torn at both knees which left the skin open and bleeding, the boot that caught the rock was badly scuffed and there were leaves in her ponytail, but she didn't notice or care, she just kept running.

After a short time, Verity came to her ruins, to her discovery and ran immediately to the gate and climbed over it. She ran through the barn surrounded yard and headed to her little house; her shelter. Once she was there she clambered over fallen rock and debris and found a space in the corner that was clear, and she sunk down on to the floor and huddled p in to protective ball and cried herself in to a deep sleep.

While it rained Verity's body stayed as still and as silent as the dead while her brain whizzed at a million miles an hour until suddenly it stopped; her dream self was warm and dry, and much older.

Verity looked at herself in the mirror, she must have been about thirty and was wearing three rings on the fourth finger of her left hand; an engagement ring, a wedding ring and an eternity ring. Verity looked at her surroundings and saw that she wasn't in her little house any more, but was in a vast mansion. She wondered in to a lounge area where there were ornate vases and paintings and a grand piano. On top of that piano were several silver and gold picture frames. Out of curiosity Verity walked over to look at the photographs and was shocked at what she saw; the largest photo was of her and Tyler on their wedding day. The picture on the left of that was of Tyler kissing her very pregnant belly while she laughed, the picture to the right was of her and Tyler at the hospital holding a little baby. The other pictures were of Tyler, her and what appeared to be their son; Christenings, birthdays, Christmases, the baby went from being a small infant to a beaming toddler and to a playful child, smiling in his uniform for his first day of school, in the pool with his father. In the latest picture of the three of them the boy appeared to be about seven years of age, he was sat on Verity's lap while Verity sat on Tyler's lap. The boy looked just like his father and she and Tyler looked very happy.

"Amazing isn't it? How a glimpse in to the future can make you feel." A voice said from behind her, causing her to jump. Verity turned around and saw a boy who would have been seventeen sat in an arm chair. He was slender in build, had grey-blue eyes and short brown hair.

"You?" Verity asked, her voice laced with questions.

"I'm the man of your dreams baby!" He laughed as he stood up, waling to her, he tucked her hair behind her ears. "Mrs Simms, you're very beautiful you know. And so is your son. Little Jacob." The boy said, picking up the last photo Verity had been looking at.

"Your voice is the one I've been hearing?" Verity asked.

"Bingo!" The boy said, handing Verity the photo and walking over to the large globe and spinning it.

"Who are you?" She asked, placing the photo back on the piano top.

"Name's Pope."

"First or last?"

"Last. My first name doesn't concern you, but the reason I'm here does."

"And what reason might that be Mr Pope?" Verity asked bitterly as she walked to the globe and placed her hand on it to stop it spinning.

"I'm here to help you choose, I'm showing you your future in the hopes it'll make you take the right path." He went to the drinks stand and pored a glass of whiskey and sipped it.

"This is my future? A life with Tyler and a son?" Verity asked calmly, sitting down.

"It's one option. This is what you get if you choose the youngest of the Covenant."

"Covenant?"

"Yes, the Covenant of silence, witches. You see, the four boys you've been hanging out with are four of the original families to flee from Salem during the witch trials and settle here in Ipswich. They were all born with magical powers. The more they use those powers the quickly they age. It's tragic really." Pope sipped his drink until the glass was empty, he then refilled it.

"I don't get it, Tyler and the others are witches?" Verity gave him a confused look.

"Spot on, but they're not your regular movie witches with brooms and spell books and point hats. They were born with these powers, they lie dormant until the kid turns thirteen and then they ascend at the age of eighteen and have the full use of their powers, which is when they can get addicted and basically use to death." He explained harshly.

"Use to death? Like a drug?" Verity said concerned.

"Well it is addictive like a drug."

"And this is my future? Giving birth to a magical child that could die from a power trip? I don't believe you." Verity said defensively.

"You don't have to believe me, you just have to see for yourself. Enjoy this dream Verity, it will be the most pleasant one you have in a while." Pope sneered and then vanished in wisp of air, causing the half full whiskey glass to drop to the floor and smash to pieces, causing Verity to jump to her feet and begin gathering the broken pieces of glass.

"Mommy?" The small child from the photographs came to the door way. It took Verity a moment to compose herself and realise the little boy, Jacob Simms, was talking to her.

"Yes?" She finally answered.

"I still feel sick, can you read me a story?" He asked in a small voice, causing Verity's heart to melt.

"Of course I can baby, what story do you want?" Verity smiled and placed the broken glass on the ornate coffee table and went over to the little boy, sweeping him up in her arms causing him to smile.

"I want The Solider and the Tinderbox, daddy says it's your favourite." Little Jacob rubbed his eyes.

"How about I tuck you up in my bed and we read it together?" Verity began to walk up the vast and grand staircase that looked like it belonged to a castle and not a family home.

"Can we watch a movie on your big TV too?" Jacob's voice perked up a little, causing Verity to laugh.

"What movie do you want to watch baby?" She asked, finally reaching the top of the stairs and walking to the little boy's room, even though she had no clue how she knew where to go.

"Ummmmmm, The Hunchback of Notredame?" He asked.

"Not Transformers?" Verity asked.

"You said I wasn't allowed a grown up film like that." He informed his mother.

"Right, of course not, I knew that!" Verity smiled, walking over to a bookshelf that contained toys, collectables, DVDs and books so Jacob could grab the DVD he wanted.

"Silly mommy, testing me." He bopped Verity gently on the head with the case.

"Well, I'm just keeping you on your toes baby." She smiled and kissed his cheek and walked out of the jungle themed bedroom and in to her bedroom; it took her by surprise by its grandness. Two large floor to ceiling windows decorated with heavy curtains, a vast wooden four poster bed covered in pillows and blankets. And a large flat screen TV on the wall at the end of the bed, much to Jacob's delight. Verity smiled, it was the bedroom she had always dreamed of, vases of flowers and photographs on the wall from her wedding and honey moon, it looked like it belonged in a modern day palace, which Verity guessed she was in. She sat Jacob on the bed and sat beside him.

"How about you turn on the TV and get the film ready and I'll get the bed ready so we can snuggle?" She said, which caused the little boy to smile.

"Deal!" He laughed, jumping off the bed to get the film ready, Verity placed some of the cushions on the ottoman at the bottom of the bed and peeled back the duvet and kicked off her slippers and got in to the big, soft bed.

"You know for someone who was feeling sick earlier you're looking pretty spry." She teased as the little boy ran back to the bed and jumped up, sliding in next to her and making himself comfortable.

"Yeah, you make me feel better mommy." He kissed her cheek and [laced his head on her chest as they watched the opening song.

Verity spend a half hour stroking the little boys soft, dark hair and listening to his giggles when an older Tyler came in to the room, Verity and Jacob didn't notice until they heard the sound of a shutter and his laughter.

"Now that's a picture perfect moment!" Tyler smiled, walking over to the bed. He kissed Verity's head and Jacob launched himself at the man.

"Daddy!" He squealed with delight as Tyler took him in his arms and gave him a big cuddle.

"How's my champ doing then?" Tyler asked, placing Jacob back on the bed.

"Better I think." Verity said with a smile, unable to take her eyes off her husband.

"But only a little." Jacob informed them sternly, getting back under the covers and snuggling back in to Verity, causing his parents to laugh.

"Then I guess I better stick around and make sure you keep getting better, right buddy?" Tyler winked at his wife and shrugged out of his jacket, took off his tie and kicked off his shoes and leaped over Verity on to the bed, landing the other side of her and Jacob and slid under the covers to join his family.

"Verity! Wake up! We're nearly home Verity!" A voice echoed in her ears.

"What?" She mumbled, unsure of where she was now.

"Almost home, what were you thinking?" The voice asked.

"Tyler?"

"No, it's me, Caleb." He looked at the girl he was carrying in his arms worriedly.

"Caleb?" Verity suddenly became more aware she wasn't in the big squashy bed with Tyler and her future son, and she wasn't in the hard cold corner of the ruined house either; she was in Caleb's arms being carried home.

"What are you doing?" She asked, looking up at his face.

"Taking you home. What were you doing at the place Verity? I told you to stay away."

"I was locked out, I had nowhere else to go." Verity remembered. "I made such a mess of things Caleb." Verity began to cry silently as Caleb finally got to the steps that led up to her front door, as he approached, her frantic mother burst open the door.

"You found her! Thank God! Is she okay?" Dianne rushed out with a blanket at put it over her shivering daughter.

"She's fine, just cold and went. I'll take her to her room." Caleb told her, carrying Verity through the house and down the stairs. Her mother had clearly turned the storage heater up as high as it would go because for the first time since Verity had been there the room was hot. Also, the heated blankets that were under her duvet were on which also helped with the heat in the room. Caleb placed her on her bed and wrapped her up in the blanket, Dianne soon shooed him out of the room and began to strip the wet clothes from her daughter.

Caleb made his way upstairs where Frank was waiting with a hot cup of strong coffee.


	27. Chapter 27

**Authors Note; I own NOTHING Covenant related, just Verity and the plot. **

**Sorry for my extended absence, I wasn't well and spent a lot of time in bed. Hopefully this will make up for it. Please read and review and enjoy.**

**Chapter 27.**

"Where was she Caleb?" A concerned Frank Hanes asked as they both sat at the kitchen table.

"She was at an abandoned house, she left her keys at my place and was locked out, she didn't know where else to go." Caleb sighed, sipping the hot liquid caffeine.

"What I don't understand is how her friends left her up here in the rain with no keys. Perhaps you can enlighten me?"

"None of us knew her keys were still at my house."

"And you bought her home because….?"

"She asked us to, I guess she was feeling a little homesick."

"Right." Frank sipped his coffee, never taking his eyes away from Caleb.

After an awkward hour, Dianne returned to the kitchen and began to make some soup and ready a tray.

"She's warmed up now and in bed, she isn't making a lot of sense, talking about the ruined house and her family. I think we might a doctor Frank." She sighed, waiting for the soup to heat up in the microwave.

"What she needs is a good rest and a car of her own to get her from A to B without having to rely on her friends." Frank sneered slightly. Dianne tapped him harshly on the shoulder to remind him to be nice.

"Enough of that Frank, we knew moving here would be difficult for her, for us all, but she has good friends which is making her transition easier. Caleb, would you take this down to Verity please?" Dianne smiled and collected the hot soup from the microwave and out it on a tray with a spoon and some juice and handed it to Caleb, who took it from her hands gently.

"Of course Mrs Hanes, I'd be happy too." Caleb gave a soft smile and walked out of the kitchen and down to Verity's room.

As he left he heard Dianne scold Frank about his manners and told him Verity managed to look after herself in New York while they were both busy and absent.

Caleb knocked softly on Verity's bedroom door and walked in; Verity lay in a tiny ball under her duvet and stared in to space, as if he were sleeping with her eyes open. There was a desk chair by her bed where Dianne had been sitting, so Caleb placed the tray on her bed side table and sat down.

"Verity, sit up, you have to eat." He said softly.

"I ruined everything. I blew it." She whimpered. Caleb stroked her hair and tucked it behind her ear.

"I don't know what happened between you and Tyler, but when you didn't answer your phone and you didn't come to the door her was a mess. We were all so worried about you Verity."

"Tyler came here?" She asked in a small voice.

"Yeah he did, about an hour after you came home. He said you guys had an argument and that he wanted to talk but he couldn't find you. He came back to my place worried, we all split up to look for you."

"Where is he?"

"He and Reid went looking around town, he even called Aaron thinking he might have seen you. I told them I found you and your mom was taking care of you. Whatever you guys sais to each other really hit him hard."

"When can I see him?"

"Soon. What were you thinking Verity? Why go to the ruins? I've told you to stay away from there."

"I didn't know where else to go, it was raining and I was upset."

"Promise me you won't go there again? Please? It's not safe. Sit up, you need to eat. It's been a long a day."

Verity nodded and sat up slowly, still feeling weak and overcome with tiredness. Caleb could see she was still shaking, so he slowly began to feed her the soup and give her sips of orange juice. Once the dishes were empty, Caleb placed them back on the tray and gently squeezed Verity's hand in his.

"What happened between the two of you?" Caleb asked, Verity shook her head.

"It was just so stupid of me. To mess everything up like that. I thought Tyler might have told you." Verity looked down at her lap, avoiding his gaze.

"He didn't say what the argument was about." Caleb reassured her.

"I just want him back Caleb. He means so much to me."

Caleb was about to tell her to call Tyler, but Dianne came through the door and declared it was time for Caleb to go and for Verity to get some sleep.

Once the door was closed, Verity reached over to her bed side table and looked at her phone, once Caleb had realised her bag and belongings were in his house, he returned them promptly to her home and worried parents, and went looking for Verity. Dianne had unpacked her bag and put her phone in its usual spot but hadn't gone through her messages, and once Verity had been found, she bundled the girl in to a hot bath and wrapped her up in flannel pyjamas and tucked her up in bed.

This was the first time since her incident with Pogue that she had looked at her beloved phone. She had fifteen missed calls in total, from her parents, Tyler, Caleb, and Aaron. She also had text messages.

The first was from Aaron; _Verity, where are you? Simms nearly beat my brains out thinking I kidnapped you or something. Stop freaking me out!_ Verity forgot that she and Aaron had swapped numbers on her first day when she tutored him in the library. She also thought after the previous night at Nicky's she would be the last person he would worry about.

The next was message was from Tyler;_ Ver, where are you? I know I was mad at you but now I'm worried. Call me, please? Ty xxx_

The third message was from Pogue; _I'm sorry x_

And there were more from her parents asking if she wanted take out for her dinner, followed by worried messages asking where she was, then angry messages saying to call them or she was grounded for life. There was another message from her New York friend, but she didn't have the energy to respond. But she wanted Tyler to be here, to cuddle her to sleep and stroke her hair and whisper sweet nothings in her ear. But he wasn't and she felt alone.


	28. Chapter 28

**Author's Note; I own NOTHING Covenant related (still!) Just Verity and the plot.**

**Hope you like the story so far. I don't know how long I'm going to keep writing because I have so many ideas and so little energy! If there's something you want to see happen in the story please let me know! I am to please**** ;)**

**Please read and review! **

**Chapter 28.**

Verity smiled as she looked out of the window in the kitchen that over looked the beach. Right now the two of them were living in a comfortable yet small beach hut in Hawaii and had done so for the last five months. They had come here after spending several months in Rio, and several months before that in Vietnam. Beach life was something they loved and were in no rush to end. After their small but picturesque wedding on an overly large jetty on a lake that was situated on land his parents owned nearly seven years ago when they were fresh out of college, Verity and her husband (who teasingly called himself Mr Verity) followed their dreams. Neither could decide what it was exactly that they wanted to do with their working lives for the next thirty or more years and following the dreams their parents had for them seemed too much, too overbearing and not free enough, so they decided to go where ever they wanted for a few years and just enjoy each other and the places they had dreamed of visiting. Their life was a never ending honeymoon and neither of them were in a hurry to end it and join the rat race that was a real grown up life. One day they would, just not quite yet though.

She enjoyed watching her husband work on his various projects; his current project was building a trike from scratch using a beer barrel as the fuel tank and old chairs as seats. She giggled to herself as she remembered the old Triumph he worked so hard on restoring in Vietnam; Pogue had found the bike in several bits in an abandoned crate in the docks and was so excited about telling Verity what a rare bike it was, especially in Vietnam, so they both somehow managed to get it back to their home and he began to clean up the engine (or the bits of the engine he had) on their make-do kitchen table. He worked day and night on it for weeks and eventually tracked down the missing parts and began to rebuild it.

Verity couldn't deny that it wasn't a beautiful machine, made more impressive by Pogue's eagerness and excitement at the finished project. Pogue begged Verity to go for a ride with him on it to see the sunset, when she said he bounded around like a child getting their helmets ready. The bike started beautifully and the engine purred like an old and over fed cat. The seats vibrated with the noise of the engine and when they went over a bump, the suspension would squeak and groan and send them bouncing down the road toward the next bump. These were the little things that Verity and Pogue laughed at together. They witnessed an amazing sunset and while riding home they hit one bump that was a little less forgiving than all the others and the bike promptly fell apart leaving them both of the floor with Pogue still holding on to the handlebars.

Verity looked down at her leg and gently touched the dimpled flesh of the gravel rash scar that had left its mark down her outer thigh and sighed. She would ride with Pogue again, but she would never wear shorts, no matter how hot and humid the weather was.

Getting two beers out of their loudly humming refrigerator, Verity made her way to the plastic sheeting Pogue had laid out on the sand so he could work on outing the bike together in the sun.

"Hey sexy man, got you a beer." She smiled, standing next to his kneeling frame.

"I have the best wife a man could ask for." He smiled and put down his tools, kissing his way up Verity's scarred leg, he took the two bottles from her hands and pulled her to the floor next to him, causing her to laugh.

"You wanna go for a swim?" She asked, kissing along his neck.

"Maybe later, I just want to attach the fuel tank to the main frame. Then I'm all yours baby." He smiled, running his oiled fingers through her neck-length hair.

"That's a pity, because I really had the urge to go skinny dipping." She nibbled at his ear lobe, smiling as he groaned.

"Baby you'll be the death of me." He smiled as he picked her up in his arms and ran down to the water with her, laughing.

The pair splashed about, laughing and swimming, diving around generally being happy and free that Verity didn't notice the sudden change in the sky going from blue and sunny to grey and cold. The water went black and she began to shiver violently, she turned to look for Pogue but he had vanished.

"Pogue! Pogue where are you?" She called out loudly, suddenly feeling hysterically afraid.

"He's gone. For now." A sly voice taunted, Verity jumped and turned around.

There he was, the boy from her last dream, looking as shifty and as dangerous as ever.

"You." She spat.

"Yes me." He grinned.

"Where's Pogue?"

"Your beloved husband isn't here. But I am, and I'm here to show you something."

"What? What could you possibly have to show me?" She urged.

"Not so eager Mrs Parry, I quite like the way you look today. Naked and wet is a very good look for you, something I'd like to see more often."

Feeling shy in the black water that came up to her collar bone, she wrapped her arms around herself and shuddered.

The man she knew simply as Pope laughed and put a hand under her chin, forcing her to look at him.

"You're no fun, let's go." He sneered.

Verity felt warmth and discovered she was, in fact, back on dry land. She gasped and looked down, feeling relieved that she was now fully dressed in jeans and a guy's sweater. Looking around at her surroundings she found herself in an old and rickety house, there was an arm chair facing away from her that was situated right in front of a fire place that was roaring with heat and flame.

"Take a look." Pope sneered. "Take a look at your future if you pick option A."

"Option A?" She asked nervously.

"Option A being your life as Mrs Tyler Simms. But I warn you, it's not pretty." He smiled.

Verity took a deep breath and walked around to the front of the arm chair looking only at the ground, she was afraid of what she might see.

"Take a good long look at what life as the mother of one of them will give you. Look at what little Jacob will become, at what Tyler will become when he uses his powers to save to from dying." Pope's words offered her no comfort at what she was about to lay her eyes upon.

Verity trailed her eyes up a pair of pyjama covered legs and glanced at the hands that rested in the lap and gasped then shook her head. The hands were grey, bony and mottled with age, like a horror movie prop.

"Keep looking, future Covenant wife." Pope hissed at her. She did as she was told, half of her wanting to see what it was that was sat in that chair, while the other half of her stood stuck to the floor with fear, not wanting to look. She let her eyes trail slowly up the torso and chest until she came to the face, and screamed, stepping back she stumbled and fell. But she was still unable to take her eyes off that face.

The grey colour matched that of the skin on those hands; grey and mottled with age. Pales, watery blue eyes that looked so weary and sad looked at her, as if begging for her help.

"This is William Danvers, he's younger than your own father by a few years, he used his powers, abused them, became addicted to them. And now he's trapped in this body, wasting away, old before his time." Pope's voice seemed like a gentle yet sly song as he crouched down beside Verity.

"This is Caleb's father? I thought he passed away." She gasped, trying to compose herself.

"Well Mrs Danvers couldn't very well parade this thing around as her husband, could she? How would she explain that to society?" Pope grinned.

"Caleb knows?"

"Of course Caleb knows!" He scoffed. "All the Covenant members know! But try explaining this to

Your other friends over a game of bridge and cake! Don't you see Verity? This is what will happen if you birth a Covenant child. If you choose Tyler this is inevitable."

"You said this is what Tyler would become if he saved me, this is what Jacob would become."

"I did, yes. Truth is, you die in childbirth but Tyler refuses to let you, he pushes his power to the limit to bring you back, which in turn will push your son's powers to the limit. So instead of little Jacob Simms getting his powers at thirteen and ascending at eighteen, he gets his powers AND ascends at thirteen. Tyler will end up like this long before then, and Jacob will try to save him for you and by the time his friends ascend, he'll be dead. And you'll be all alone in the world."

Verity stood up and shook her head, feeling resentful at the future this boy had planned out for her.

"So we won't have children." She said, her voice as strong as steel, even though her knees felt as weak as hot butter.

"That's not an option for the young Mr Simms, he's all about family." Pop twirled her hair around his fingers, smelling the strands.

"Then we'll adopt."

"Again, not an option. He'll want to carry on his blood line, make a mini Simms; half him and half you."

Verity sighed, felling hopeless now.

"The only way to do it is to choose the one who doesn't see a child in his future, the chose Pogue. He will show you the world, you and him together, none of this." Pope pointed at William.

"Why should I believe you? How can I trust you?" She turned to him, her eyes full of hatred.

"You'll see."

"I'm going to choose Tyler, and I'm going to tell him about you."

Pope yanked his fingers from her hair, causing her to cry out.

"You won't tell, you're too scared. And no one will believe you! The girl who hides and cries herself to sleep in a dilapidated old house. The girl who kisses her boyfriend's best friend." He sneered, his face so close to hers she could almost feel the heat of his own anger and hatred on her skin.

"Verity!" A soft voice called out from William. "Verity, wake up! Wake up Verity!"

Verity sat up right in her bed with a start, looking confused. Beads of sweat rolled down her clammy skin, her face was flushed slightly in the cheeks while the rest of her skin looked whiter than white. She breathed heavily, as if she had run at a hundred miles an hour all night.

"Verity you have a visitor." Her mother informed her from the other side of her door.

"I'll be right out." She called out, her voice croaky.

"Don't be too long." Dianne sighed and made her way noisily made her way back up the stairs and in to the kitchen where the visitor was waiting.


	29. Tense Atmospheres And Smiles

**Author's Note; I own nothing Covenant related (damn it!) BUT I own Verity and the plot. And I used to own her house too. **

**Please keep the reviews coming! I thrive on feedback, good or bad.**

**Read and review pretty please!**

**Chapter 29.**

"Tyler?" Verity said in surprise, glad to see him, but confused as to why he would want to see her after she had done such a terrible thing.

"I tried to call but I got your voicemail." He explained.

"I must have let my battery die." She looked at him with sad eyes, she could tell he hadn't had an easy night of sleep.

"Can we talk?" He said eventually, breaking the silence.

"Sure, I'll just go get dressed." She turned and walked down to her room, quickly changing and brushing her teeth and hair, she bumped in to her father as she came out of the bathroom.

"Do not forget your keys this time young lady. And do not go near those ruins again, do you hear me Verity?" Her father said in a quiet but harsh voice, Verity simply nodded. "Off you go then, I want you back here by two, we're having a family dinner." Frank instructed.

"How can we have a family dinner when we've not even been a real family for years?" She asked sulkily, moving up the stairs quickly. She hated it when the three of them tried to pretend everything was okay when it really wasn't. They had all tried so hard in New York, why would Ipswich be so different? Was she being unreasonable or was she simply just being grump because of what happened this weekend?

Making her way up to the kitchen she gave herself a quiet telling off and smiled weakly at Tyler.

"So, where shall we go? I have to be back by two so…." She said.

"Maybe we can go get a coffee in town, there's only one place open on a Sunday, it's pretty quiet there." Tyler suggested, his hands still in his pockets.

"Sounds good to me." She sighed and opened the kitchen door and put on her coat while Tyler walked outside to his car without waiting for her.

Verity closed her door and made her way to Tyler's hummer, getting in quickly she buckled her seatbelt and watched Tyler nervously as he turned on the engine and made his way down the narrow country lane and on to the main road without so much as glancing at her, or even talking to her. In fact, Verity wasn't even sure if he was breathing; he was so silent and still.

"Is it going to be like this forever?" She said quietly, breaking the icy and tense silence.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be so quiet, but I just don't know what to say." He looked at her for a second and Verity could clearly see the confusion and pain in his eyes; it reflected hers exactly.

"I'm the one who's sorry Tyler, I truly am. I was stupid and I shouldn't have let it happen, but if you can't forgive me then what is it we're doing?" She held her breath, waiting for him to pull the car over and yell at her. Tyler simply shook his head and continued to drive.

"I can forgive you Verity. I do forgive you. I just wanted to talk to you is all. I guess I'm just finding it a little difficult. I imagined yelling at you, crying, not being able to make it to your front door. But here I am sat with you in the car."

"If you want to yell at me, then I deserve it, I can take it."

"No I'm not going to yell at you. We're here." He said, pulling the car over and turning off the engine. He placed a hand under her chin so he could look in to her eyes. "I promise I'm not going to yell."

Verity nodded at him, leaning in to take in his scent, he simply unbuckled his seatbelt and got out the car. Verity slowly unbuckled herself and went to open her door, but was taken aback when Tyler opened it for her and took her hand in his and gave her a weak smile before looking at the ground. Verity swallowed the lump in her throat and slid out of the car, letting him lead her in to the café.

Tyler and Verity sat opposite each other at a small table in the back corner, Tyler had ordered them both a coffee and now they were holding their hot mugs, warming their hands, both looking for words to day to the other. Finally it was Tyler who broke the silence.

"What were you thinking Verity?" He asked hurriedly.

"I don't know. I guess I wasn't." She struggled to hold back her tears of guilt and pain.

"When did it start? You're feelings for him." He asked, and Verity shook her head and looked him the eyes so he could she what she was about to say was the truth.

"I don't have feelings for him, not in the way I have feelings for you. When he took me to the medical wing hat day at school he kissed me. I didn't know what to think or do. Nothing else happened, I swear. I don't know why I kissed him in the pool yesterday; it wasn't worth the risk of me losing you. I can see that now. And I am so sorry Tyler-"

"He kissed you before? And you still went out with me?"

"Because I liked you Tyler, and I still do. Pogue never approached me about it again. I've actually avoided him since. Yesterday I guess he just caught up with me."

Verity wiped her eyes and Tyler watched her, taking her hands in his tightly, it almost hurt.

"You have to promise me you won't be alone with him again. Swear it Verity-"

"I swear it! I swear on my life Tyler!"

They looked at each other in silence for few minutes, holding hands firmly on the table.

"We can move on this, right?" Verity asked desperately.

Tyler nodded and kissed her hands.

"We can. But I have to get you home, its nearly two." Tyler said gently.

"Can I see you this evening?"

"I'll call you later, I promised Reid I'd help him with his homework. You know how hopeless he is." Tyler smiled, Verity smiled back.

"Yeah I know. Poor Reid, unless it's cleavage in a short skirt he can't concentrate!"

The pair laughed at ease, as if nothing had ever happened. They paid for their drinks and went to the car, Tyler even let her drive home as long she promised she wouldn't tell Reid.

"Did you tell him? About….." Verity asked on the drive home.

"No, I want to pretend it never happened. I'm going to tell the same to Pogue." Tyler stroked her hair while she drove and she smiled, enjoying the contact between them.


	30. Chapter 30

**Authors Note; I own no rights to the Covenant. I only own Verity. For those of you who have read Eternal Promises; just a quick reminder that this Verity is different to Verity Salvatore-I just really like the name! I'd even change my name to Verity if I thought for a second any one would call me that! No joke! **

**So it's been a really long time since I updated, partially because I had a writing break and partially because I've been concentrating on my other story (as mentioned previously) so I'm kind of blowing off the cobwebs of Tyvler and Verity and getting back to work so reviews would be greatly welcomed AND loved! Please enjoy!**

**Chapter 30.**

"You want me to what?!" An angered Pogue Parry shouted across the room to Tyler.

"I want you to pretend that the kiss you and Verity had never happened." Tyler said, his voice cold as ice yet strong like steel, he was standing his ground on this matter.

"I can't do that!" Pogue angrily ran his fingers through his hair.

"Yes you can! I am and so is Verity."

"She's what?" Pogue sighed, turning to face his friend.

"We're both forgetting that it ever happened. And you should too, if you want to carry on being her friend. I'm serious on this Pogue." Tyler swallowed as he gave the final blow. "She's forgetting about it and you should too. I don't want either of us to lose a friend over this but we will if we have to." Pogue sat down, looking at the floor. He was ashamed of what he had done but he couldn't give up now, could he?

"I don't understand man, she was in to it. I mean, she was in to me, that wasn't the first time."

"What?" Tyler yelled, caught off guard.

"Tyler, we kissed when I took her to the hospital after she had that show down with Kira."

"No, Caleb took-"

"I went with them. Caleb went to bring the car round to the entrance of the ER and I waited with her. That's when-"

"Waves crashed and birds sang. I get it. Save me the detail" Tyler waled to the door, Pogue stood up and strode over to him, placing his hand on the door and forcing his weight behind it so Tyler was unable to open it.

"What the hell-" Tyler began, frustrated.

"Tyler listen, I'm sorry bro, I really am. Things have been messed up with Kate for a while now and with her out of town, I guess I got up." Pogue sighed.

"And that's your excuse? Come off it Pogue! You're meant to be my friend!" Tyler argued.

"What am I supposed to say here Ty?"

"That you're sorry and you'll keep a distance until it all blows over and it won't ever happen again is a pretty good start! Not flaunting that you kissed her first!" Tyler shoved his friend as hard as he could and made his way out of the door. He had made it to his car when his friend caught up with him, grabbing him by the shoulders and turning him to face him, slamming his back against the car door and pinning him in place.

"Tyler listen to me! I **am** sorry, but I can't stay away. You're my friend and she's my friend. I won't stay away and you can't ask me too. What happened has happened. Neither of us can take it back so stop punishing us! Please." Pogue said through gritted teeth, holding a struggling Tyler in place, who relentlessly continued his attempt to break free.

"I can't! She's my first girlfriend! How can I just forget it when I know you made your move first? How can I look at her the same now?" Tyler said as he stopped his efforts to move out from under Pogue's grasp.

"Because she chose you!" Pogue yelled, causing Tyler to finally look Pogue in the eye. "She chose you man, so stop fighting me."

"She chose me?" Tyler looked slightly confused, all his energy had been spent on fighting and now he was lost.

"Yeah man, she chose you. She wouldn't have gone to Nicky's with you or anything if she hadn't. She chose you, so can't we just leave it?2 Pogue sighed and let go of Tyler.

"She chose me." Tyler said, more of a fact than a question, though he was still a tad perplexed.

"Yeah, she chose you." Pogue nodded, Tyler ran his hands through his hair.

"How do you know?" Tyler asked softly, as if looking for proof.

"Because she wouldn't have gone out with you in the first place of she hadn't. She wouldn't have been so worked up or avoided my calls and texts if she hadn't. So yeah, I can forget it ever happened, but I can't not talk to her. Verity's as much my friend as you are Ty." Pogue reasoned. Tyler nodded a little breathless.

"Okay. Just don't do it again. Ever. It would kill me if I lost her." Tyler said quietly, Pogue nodded and leant against the car next to him.

"So, what do we do now?" Pogue asked.

"Now, I go home to my bed and call my girlfriend and you go back inside and call yours. Have you even talked to Kate lately?" Tyler asked, Pogue gave a light hearted laugh.

"As if! That girl is God knows where sleeping with God knows who right about now! She doesn't care about me, I've got nothing to offer her." Pogue confessed.

"Sure you have, you've got plenty." Tyler tried to reassure his friend, Pogue just shrugged.

"No, I've only got a well-known name and money. I'm not what she wants; A rich trust fun guy who goes by all the rules but breaks them in private with her. I'm not a stiff in a suit Tyler, I do what I want and when I want. Hell, I go where I want too." Pogue confessed.

"I guess, she was just too good to be true when it came to you bro, she aint exactly miss perfect." Tyler said with a smile.

"Now Verity is a different matter."

"Sometimes I think I'm not right for her. We've not even been dating long but I keep having the same dream about us in the future. We live in this massive house and she's the perfect wife and we even have a kid. How creepy is that? That my subconscious has picked out a name for our son?"

"What did you call him?"

"Jacob. We called him Jacob. In the dream our life is perfect. I guess if she could see how I see her in the future she'd smack across the head and say I dreamed up a Stepford Wife!" Tyler smirked, Pogue gave him a smile.

"Beats having a dream that you travel around and eventually end up in a beach hut somewhere fixing up an old bike." Pogue shrugged, Tyler looked at him.

"You dream about Verity?"

"No man, just in general. I dream I'm on a beach fixing up a bike." Pogue lied.

The truth is, he had been dreaming of Verity a lot. Each night they had moved on to a different place, were seeing different things. They were happy moving around where ever life took them, taking each day at a time and enjoying it.

And Tyler had been constantly dreaming about a perfect life with Verity, and he knew that would scare her which is why he had kept it to himself.


End file.
